than let himself be taken and deposed and put to death as he was. Howbeit, since that time, there has been never another Calif, either at Baudas or anywhere else."

Now I will tell you of a great miracle that befel at Baudas, wrought by God on behalf of the Christians.

NOTE 1. This form of the Medieval Frank name of BAGHDAD, Baudas, is curiously like that used by the Chinese historians, Paota (Pauthier; Gaubil), and both are probably due to the Mongol habit of slurring gutturals (see Prologue, ch. ii. note 3).

NOTE 2.-Polo is here either speaking without personal knowledge, or is so brief as to convey an erroneous impression that the Tigris flows to Kisi, whereas three-fourths of the length of the Persian Gulf intervene between the river mouth and Kisi. The latter is the island and city of KISH or KAIS, about 200 miles from the Mouth of the Gulf, and for a long time one of the chief ports of trade with India and the East. The island, the Cataca of Arrian, now called Ghes or Kenn, is singular among the islands of the Gulf as being wooded and well supplied with fresh water. The ruins of a city exist on the north side. According to Wassáf, the island derived its name from one Kais, the son of a poor widow of Siraf (then a great port of Indian trade on the northern shore of the Gulf), who on a voyage to India, about the 10th century, made a fortune precisely as Dick Whittington did. The proceeds of the cat were invested in an establishment on this island. Modern attempts to rationalise Whittington may surely be given up! It is one of the tales which, like Tell's shot, the dog Gellert, and many others, are common to many regions. (Hammer's Ilch. I. 239; Ouseley's Travels, I. 170; Notes and Queries, 2nd s. XI. 372.)

Mr. Badger, in a postscript to his translation of the History of Omán (Hak. Soc. 1871), maintains that Kish or Kais was at this time a city on the mainland, and identical with Síráf. He refers to Ibn Batuta (II. 244), who certainly does speak of visiting "the city of Kais, called also Síráf." And Polo, neither here nor in Bk. III. ch. xl., speaks of Kisi as an Island. I am inclined, however, to think that this was from not having visited it. Ibn Batuta says nothing of Síráf as a seat of trade; but the historian Wassáf, who had been in the service of Jamaluddin al-Thaibi, the Lord of Kais, in speaking of the export of horses thence to India, calls it "the Island of Kais" (Elliot, III. 34). Compare allusions to this horse trade in ch. xv. and in Book III. ch. xvii. Wassáf was precisely a contemporary of Polo.

NOTE 3.-The name is Bascra in the MSS., but this is almost certainly the common error of c for t. BASRA is still noted for its vast

date-groves.

"The whole country from the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris to the sea, a distance of thirty leagues, is covered with these trees." (Tav. Bk. II. ch. iii.)

NOTE 4. From Baudas, or Baldac, i.e. Baghdad, certain of these rich silk and gold brocades were called Baldachini, or in English Baudekins. From their use in the state canopies and umbrellas of Italian dignitaries, the word Baldacchino has come to mean a canopy, even when architectural. The stuffs called Nasich and Nac are again mentioned by our traveller below (ch. lix.) We only know that they were of silk and gold, as he implies here, and as Ibn Batuta tells us, who mentions Nakh several times and Nasij once. The latter is also mentioned by Rubruquis (Nasic) as a present made to him at the Kaan's court. And Pegolotti speaks of both nocchi and nacchetti of silk and gold, the latter apparently answering to Nasich. Nac, Nacques, Nachiz, Naciz, Nasis, appear in accounts and inventories of the 14th century, French and English. (See Dictionnaire des Tissus, II. 199, and Douet d'Arcq, Comptes de l'Argenterie des Rois de France, &c., p. 334) We find no mention of Nakh or Nasij among the stuffs detailed in the Ain Akbari, so they must have been obsolete in the 16th century. Quermesis or Cramoisy derived its name from the Kermes insect (Ar. Kirmiz) found on Quercus coccifera, now supplanted by cochineal. The stuff so called is believed to have been originally a crimson velvet, but apparently like the medieval Purpura, if not identical with it, it came to indicate a tissue rather than a colour. Thus Fr.-Michel quotes velvet of vermeil cramoisy, of violet, and of blue cramoisy, and pourpres of a variety of colours, though he says he has never met with pourpre blanche. I may, however, point to Plano Carpini (p. 755), who describes the courtiers at Karakorum as clad in white purpura.

The London prices of Chermisi and Baldacchini in the early part of the 15th century will be found in Uzzano's work, but they are hard to elucidate.

Babylon, of which Baghdad was the representative, was famous for its variegated textures in very early days. We do not know the nature of the goodly Babylonish garment which tempted Achan in Jericho, but Josephus speaks of the affluence of rich stuffs carried in the triumph of Titus, "gorgeous with life-like designs from the Babylonian loom," and he also describes the memorable Veil of the Temple as a méndos Baẞrovios of varied colours marvellously wrought. Pliny says King Attalus invented the intertexture of cloth with gold; but the weaving of damasks of a variety of colours was perfected at Babylon, and thence they were called Babylonian.

The brocades wrought with figures of animals in gold, of which Marco speaks, are still a spécialité at Benares, where they are known by the name of Shikárgáh or hunting-grounds, which is nearly a translation of the name Thard-wahsh "beast-hunts," by which they were known to

the medieval Saracens (see Q. Makrizi, IV. 69-70). Plautus speaks of such patterns in carpets, the produce of Alexandria - "Alexandrina belluata conchyliata tapetia." Athenæus speaks of Persian carpets of like description at an extravagant entertainment given by Antiochus Epiphanes; and the same author cites a banquet given in Persia by Alexander, at which there figured costly curtains embroidered with animals. In the 4th century Asterius, Bishop of Amasia in Pontus, rebukes the Christians who indulge in such attire: "You find upon them lions, panthers, bears, huntsmen, woods and rocks; whilst the more devout display Christ and his disciples, with the stories of his miracles," &c. And Sidonius alludes to upholstery of like character :"Peregrina det supellex

Fugiens fugansque Parthus." (Epist. ix. 13.)

A modern Kashmír example of such work is shown under Ch. xvii. (D'Avezac, p. 524; Pegolotti, in Cathay, 295, 306; I. B. II. 309, 388, 422; III. 81; Della Decima, IV. 125-6; Fr.-Michel, Recherches, &c., II. 10-16, 204-206; Joseph. Bell. Jud. VII. 5, 5, and V. 5, 4; Pliny, VIII. 74 (or 48); Plautus, Pseudolus, I. 2; Yonge's Athenaeus V. 26 and XII. 54; Mongez in Mém. Acad. IV. 275-6.)

NOTE 5.-Hulaku started from Karakorum on his expedition against Persia, in February 1254, but he did not enter Persia till 1256, and Baghdad was not attacked till 1258.

NOTE 6.

"I said to the Kalif: Thou art old;

Thou hast no need of so much gold.

Thou shouldst not have heaped and hidden it here

Till the breath of Battle was hot and near,

But have sown through the land these useless hoards,

To spring into shining blades of swords,

And keep thine honour sweet and clear.

* Not that Alaü (pace Mr. Longfellow) ever did see Cambalu.

The story of the death of Mosta'sim Billah, the last of the Abbaside Khalifs, is told in much the same way by Hayton, Ricold, Pachymeres, and Joinville. The memory of the last glorious old man must have failed him, when he says the facts were related by some merchants who came to King Lewis, when before Saiette (or Sidon), viz. in 1253, for the capture of Baghdad occurred five years later. Mar. Sanuto says melted gold was poured down the Khalif's throat-a transfer no doubt from the old story of Crassus and the Parthians. Contemporary Armenian historians assert that Hulaku slew him with his own hand.

All that Rashiduddin says is: "The evening of Wednesday the 14th of Safar, 656 (20th Feb. 1258), the Khalif was put to death in the village of Wakf, with his eldest son and five eunuchs who had never quitted him." Later writers say that he was wrapt in a carpet and trodden to death by horses.

The foundation of the story, so widely received among the Christians, is to be found also in the narrative of Nikbi (and Mirkhond), which is cited by D'Ohsson. When the Khalif surrendered, Hulaku put before him a plateful of gold, and told him to eat it. "But one does not eat gold," said the prisoner. "Why, then," replied the Tartar, "did you hoard it, instead of expending it in keeping up an army? Why did you not meet me at the Oxus?" The Khalif could only say, "Such was God's will!" "And that which has befallen you was also God's will," said Hulaku.

Wassáf's narrative is interesting :-" Two days after his capture the Khalif was at his morning prayer, and began with the verse (Koran, III. 25), 'Say God is the Possessor of Dominion! It shall be given to whom He will; it shall be taken from whom He will: whom He will He raiseth to honour; whom He will He casteth to the ground.' Having finished the regular office he continued still in prayer with tears and importunity. Bystanders reported to the Ilkhan the deep humiliation of the Khalif's prayers, and the text which seemed to have so striking an application to those two princes. Regarding what followed there are different stories. Some say that the Ilkhan ordered food to be withheld from the Khalif, and that when he asked for food the former bade a dish of gold be placed before him, &c. Eventually, after taking counsel with his chiefs, the Padishah ordered the execution of the Khalif. It was represented that the blood-drinking sword ought not to be stained with the gore of Mosta'sim. He was therefore rolled in a carpet, just as carpets are usually rolled up, insomuch that his limbs were crushed."

The avarice of the Khalif was proverbial. When the Mongol army was investing Miafarakain, the chief, Malik Kamál, told his people that everything he had should be at the service of those in need: "Thank God I am not like Mosta'sim, a worshipper of silver and gold!"

(Hayton in Ram, ch. xxvi.; Per. Quat. 121; Pachym. Mic. Palacol. II. 24; Joinville, p. 182; Sanuto, p. 238; J. As. ser. 5. tom. xi. 490,

and XVI. 291; D'Ohsson, III. 243; Hammer's Wassáf, 75-76; Quat. Rashid. 305.)

NOTE 7.-Nevertheless Froissart brings the Khalif to life again one hundred and twenty years later, as "Le Galifre de Baudas." (Bk. III. ch. xxiv.)

CHAPTER VII.

HOW THE CALIF OF BAUDAS TOOK COUNSEL TO SLAY ALL THE CHRISTIANS IN HIS LAND.

I WILL tell you then this great marvel that occurred between Baudas and Mausul.

It was in the year of Christ'. . . that there was a Calif at Baudas who bore a great hatred to Christians, and was taken up day and night with the thought how he might either bring those that were in his kingdom over to his own faith, or might procure them all to be slain. And he used daily to take counsel about this with the devotees and priests of his faith, for they all bore the Christians like malice. And, indeed, it is a fact, that the whole body of Saracens throughout the world are always most malignantly disposed towards the whole body of Christians.

2

Now it happened that the Calif, with those shrewd priests of his, got hold of that passage in our Gospel which says, that if a Christian had faith as a grain of mustard. seed, and should bid a mountain be removed, it would be removed. And such indeed is the truth. But when they had got hold of this text they were delighted, for it seemed to them the very thing whereby either to force all the Christians to change their faith, or to bring destruction upon them all. The Calif therefore called together all the Christians in his territories, who were extremely numerous. And when they had come before him, he showed them the Gospel, and made them read the text which I have mentioned. And when they had read it he asked them if that