155 Prof. Whitney, “Language and the Study of Language,” 1867, p. 259.

156 Humboldt’s “Cosmos,” ii., pt. ii. p. 523, Bohn’s ed.

157 Plutarch, “Alexander,” 35.

158 Humboldt, ib.

159 “Le mot χαλκος et le mot æs en latin comprennaient à la fois le cuivre et ses alliages colorés en rouge ou en jaune.”—Berthelot, ii. 122 n.

160 “Golden Prairies,” Paris ed., iii. 49.

161 Chrestomathie Arabe, iii. 456.

162 Berthelot, i. 306.

163 Rāy’s “Hindu Chemistry,” p. 50.

164 Chrestomathie Arabe, ii. 482.

165 Dict. Lat.-Hispanico, 1570, but written half a century before.

166 Minsheu, “Span.-English Dict.,” 1623.

167 Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, “Hist. of Spanish Literature,” p. 19. He is speaking of the Crusade period.

168 “Literature of Europe,” &c., c. ix. § 4.

169 Berthelot, i. 232.

170 Ib., i. 130, 135.

171 Gibbon, vi 11, Bury’s ed.

172 Alexiad, xi. 10.

173 “Urbem machinis et propugnaculis munit (Alexius), quorum similia nemo viderit unquam.”—Duchesne, Hist. Franc. Script., v. 279.

174 “Ency. Brit.,” xv. 805.

175 “The Golden Prairies” of Masudi, Paris, 1873, vii. 100.

176 “J. Mesuæ ... Opera,” Venice, 1581, p. 85. Fabricius thought this Greek physician might have been Gereon (qui forte est Gereon), Bibliotheca Græca, Hamburg, 1718-52, xiii. 172. I cannot follow MM. Reinaud and Favé and Herr von Romocki in identifying him with Dioskorides. The evidence (from the description of the cyclamen and the preparation of the syrup) seems to point the other way. The past tense, dixit, in the passage in the text, would seem to show that Ibn Serapion was dead when it was written. The present tense, dicit, indicates similarly that “Græcus” was then living, a contemporary of Masawyah’s. Yet Dutens speaks of his having lived “avant le médicin arabe.”

177 L’Origine des Découvertes, 1796, p. 198.

178 Bibliot. Græc., xiii. 320. His Bibliot. Latina contains no allusion to Marcus Græcus. Galen died in 200 A.D.

179 Guttmann, “Manufac. of Explosives,” 1895, i. 8-9.

180 Recipes 1, 2, 10, &c.

181 “Artem illam mortiferam et Deo odibilem balistariorum et sagittariorum adversus Christianos et Catholicos exerceri de cetero sub anathemate prohibemus.”—Concil. Rom., ann. 1139, c. 30.

182 Caussin de Perceval, Essai sur l’hist. des Arabes, ii. 17.

183 Muir’s “Life of Mahomet,” p. 432; Caussin de Perceval, iii. 257.

184 Devout Moslem commentators explain “baked” to mean “baked in hell.” See Sale’s trans. ad loc.

185 Masudi’s “Golden Prairies,” Paris ed., v. 166.

186 “Chachnama,” in Elliot, i. 170.

187 Ib., vi. 462.

188 Masudi, ii. 350.

189 See Burton’s note, “Arab. Nights,” xii. 38.

190 I have been unable to find a copy of Gauttier’s “Arab. Nights,” Paris, 1822, and quote him as given in Burton, xii 38.

191 Supplement aux Dictionaires Arabes, Leyden, 1877, under قوس.

192 Dict. d’Etymologie Française, Brussels, 1888.

193 viii. 17-18.

194 “Hailstones full of wrath shall be cast as out of a stone bow.”—“Wisdom of Solomon,” v. 22. “Oh for a stone bow, to hit him in the eye!”—“Twelfth Night,” ii. 5.

195 Sacy, Chrestomathie Arabe, iii. 68.

196 “The Book of Archery,” London, 1840, p. 236.

197 Burton’s ed., 1894, ii. 338.

198 Burton’s ed., 1894, i. 98.

199 Elliot, iii. 526.

200 Elliot, vi. 219.

201 “Decline and Fall,” &c., vi. 226 n.

202 In Elliot, vi. 455.

203 Ib.

204 Ib., 456.

205 In Masudi’s “ Golden Prairies,” c. 93:—

وكثر الحريق والهدم ببغداد وعملت المنجنيقات نين القريقين

A large number of instances of the actual use of incendiaries in Asia will be found in General Maclagan’s “Early Asiatic Fire Weapons,” Jour. Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, xlv. p. 30 ff.

206 Shahnama, Mohl’s ed., vol. vi. p. 212, l. 628:—

همي قير و قروره انداحتند زدروازها جنك برساختبد

207 Schefer, Chrestomathie Persane, i. 48-49.

208 Reinaud and Favé, p. 65.

209 William of Tyre, Hist., &c., Paris, 1844, p. 123.

210 Bongars, Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 178.

211 Albert d’Aix, in Reinaud and Favé, p. 62.

212 Boha ed-Din, ib.

213 T. Gale, Hist. Anglicani Scriptores, Oxford, 1687, ii. 327.

214 Paris ed., 1668, p. 39 ff.

215 ii. 7. Milton uses the phrase, nitrati pulveris igne, in his juvenile Latin poem, “In Quintum Novembris,” l. 120.

216 See p. 17. He was a Spanish Arab, born near Malaga.

217 Reinaud and Favé, p. 66 n. If this Arab is identical with Shaykhun al-Omari, the Egyptian grand amir, he died in 758 A.H. (1356 A.D.). Sacy’s Chrest. Arabe, i. 272.

218 Jähns, p. 775.

219 See “Cannon at Cressy,” by the present writer, Proceed. R. A. Inst., vol. xxvi.

[220] وعمل الحركة الى مدينة بسطة فاخذ فى حلفها ونشر الحرب عليها ورمى بالالة العظمى المتحدة بالنفط كرة محماة طاقة البرج المنيع—Bib. Arab. Hispan., ii. 7.

221 “Ille castra movens, multo milite, hostium urbem Baza obsedit, ubi machinam illam maximam naphta et globo instructam, admoto igne, in munitam arcem cum strepitu explosit.”—Ib.

222 Conde, p. 559.

223 iii. 83-4.

224 Hist. du Roy Saint Loys, Paris, 1668, p. 69 ff.

225 Elliot, ii. 219.

226 Elliot, iii. 79.

227 Saxa fulminis more contorquet, De Re Militari, iv. 22.

228 Ὥσπερ πηηστήρ, Alex., xiii. 3.

229 Reinaud and Favé, in Journal Asiatique, Oct. 1849, p. 281.

[230]

وهم يستعملونه في اعمال النار المتصاعدة والمتحركة فيزيدها خفة وسرعة التهاب. Reinaud and Favé, p. 78. The fire which “rises and moves” is of course rocket composition.

231 Völsunga Saga, translated from the Icelandic by Magnusson and William Morris, p. 51.

232 Burton’s “Arab. Nights,” 1894, v. 242.

233 Elliot, vi. 471 n.

234 e.g. the red-hot ploughshare wielded with much effect by Bailie Nicol Jarvie at the Clachan of Aberfoyle.

235 “Hindu Chemistry,” pp. 97-8.

236 Given by Rāy, “Hindu Chemistry,” p. 96.

237 See p. 15.

238 Rāy’s “Hindu Chemistry,” p. 96.

239 See Table VIII.

240 See Table VII.

241 Oct. 21, 1880.

242 “Camoens,” &c., ii. 632 n.

243 “Indian Antiquary,” 1878.

244 “Hindu Chemistry,” pp. 96-7.

245 “Notices of Sanskrit MSS.,” v. 135.

246 i. 36.

247 “Decline and Fall,” &c., iv. 166, Bury’s ed.

248 “Philosophie Positive,” vi. 114.

249 Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, xvii. 244.

250 General Maclagan on “Early Asiatic Fire Weapons,” ib., xlv. 64.

251 Among other books, the De Naturis Rerum of Nekham, 1157-1217, Rolls Series, p. 183.

The editor, Mr. Thomas Wright, remarks in his preface, xxxv.:—“The mariner’s compass, in a rude form, was in use among the sailors in Western Europe at an early period, and ... instead of being borrowed from the East, as is generally supposed, it seems to have been invented in this part of the world. Of course I do not mean to say that it was not invented in other parts also.” It is explicitly noticed in a Chinese Encyclopædia finished in A.D. 121 (Sir J. Davis, “The Chinese,” &c., ii 185). But Chinese chronology is always suspicious, and, even if this date be correct, there is no evidence to show that the invention ever reached the West. The Chinese seem to have guarded their discoveries and inventions with a jealous eye. Their valuable and accurate astronomical observations were only laid open to Europe by the Jesuits, more than two thousand years after they were made. The printing press was not invented in Europe until the fifteenth century, yet Feng Tao had invented block-printing in China in the tenth (Giles’ “Chinese Literature,” p. 210). According to their own account, the Chinese have used tea since the year 2737 B.C. It was not heard of in Europe until after A.D. 1517, and did not become generally known until the seventeenth century. Brunetto Latini (1230-94), quoted by Davis, gives a curious, but only too probable a reason for the slow progress of the compass in Christendom: “No master mariner dares to use (it), lest he should fall under the suspicion of being a magician.”

252 Ferishta, “Hist. of the Rise of Mahomedan Power,” &c., trans. by General J. Briggs, 1829, ii. 312.

253 See Prof. Dowson’s note in Elliot, iv. 268.

254 Grose gives two plates of these “Ancient Gun Carts” in his “Military Antiquities,” i. 407. They are mentioned in the Acts of the Scotch Parliament, 52 of James II. and 55 of James III.

255 Favé, Hist. et Tact. des Troit Armes, p. 12. Grewenitz, Traité de l’Organ., &c., de l’Artillerie, p. 28. Wheeled gun-carriages were so little known to the general public as late as 1548, that Rabelais specially mentions some “pieces d’Artillerie sus roue” in his account of a sham fight at Rome in this year. “La Sciomachie,” in his works, ed. by Burgaud des Marets and Rathery, ii. 568.

256 Elliot, iv. 100.

257 Elliot, iv. 117.

258 iv. 65.

259 “Nullis bombardis nec aliis hujus generis tormentis utuntur.” Epist. Indicæ, M. Gaapari Belgæ, p. 38.

260 iv. 69.

261 “Hũa espingarda a quai hia tirando amte nos.” Roteiro da Viagem, &c., 1838, p. 57. Trans. in Charton, Voyageurs Anciens, &c., iii. 247.

262 “Tous armés d’épées, de guisarmes, d’écus, d’arcs et de flèches.” Charton, ib., 252. Guisarmes, which I have translated by “daggers,” is a word of obscure origin, but it means some small arme de main. We find in Ducange, under gisarma, “cultellos et alia arma minuta.” Diez, Etymologisches Wörterbuch, ii. 217, giusarma.

263 Faria y Sousa, trans. by Capt J. Stephens, 1695, i. 58.

264 Faria y Sousa, Asia Portuguesa, i. 48.

265 “Car les peuples de l’Inde n’avaient en jusque là ni canons ni autres pièce d’Artillerie—مدافع صكاحل وبندقيات.” La Foudre du Yemen, trans. by S. de Sacy in Notices el Extraits des MSS. de l’Acad. des Inscriptions, &c., iv. 420. For mukáhal, see Hyde’s Syntagma Dissertationum, 1767, ii. 128. Prof. S. Lane-Poole gives the date as 1508; “Mediæval India,” p. 176.

266 Ziau-d Din Barni, in Elliot, iii. 146.

267 Amir Khusru, ib., 75.

268 Barni, ib., 202.

269 Khusru, ib., 80.

270 “Malfuzat-i Timuri,” ib., 424.

271 “Tuzak-i Babari,” ib., iv. 276.

272 Ib., 286.

273 Ib., 251 ff.

274 Suraj Prakas, in Col. Tod’s “Annals of Rajast’han,” ii. 8.

275 Ib., i. 310.

276 Dr. Careri in Churchill’s “Collection of Voyages,” 1744, iv. 237.

277 Elliot, v. 131-2. Babar’s ironical description of the Bengalis as gunners is taken quite seriously by some writers: “The Bengalis are famous for their skill in Artillery.... They do not direct their fire against a particular point, but discharge at random,” Elliot, iv. 285. Such a procedure is not altogether unknown in Europe. When shooting, Mr. Tracy Tupman was wont to shut his eyes firmly and fire in the air.

Were these gunners friendly Bengalis employed by Babar, or hostile Bengalis working their own guns? If the latter, their guns were probably made by Portuguese deserters. We know that two artisans deserted in 1503 to the Zamorin of Calicut, for whom they offered to make guns of the same nature as the Portuguese, “which they afterwards did.” Castenheda in Kerr’s “Collection of Voyages,” ii. 454, quoted in Elliot, vi. 467.

278 The 71 grs. avoir. given to the miskal by Burton and Clarke (“Persian Handbook”) would make Babar’s large shot weigh 50 lbs.—an impossible weight, as every officer will admit who remembers our 18 Pr. S.B. bullock batteries in India. Babar could not have dragged 50 Prs. from Caubul to Panipat. Burton admits that the miskal “varies everywhere.” “Arab. Nights,” 1894, vii. 324.

279 i.e. two men’s wages for one day. See p. 205.

280 “Hindu Chemistry,” pp. 107-8.

281 Prof. R. K. Douglas, “China,” in Ency. Brit., v. 663.

282 “Gunpowder ... among the Chinese,” in Journal of North China Branch of Roy. Asiatic Soc., N.S. vi., 1869-70, p. 74, by W. F. Mayers, F.R.A.S., Chinese Consular Service. “Gunpowder came from the outer barbarians,” says the Wuh-li-siao, published in 1630.

283 Prof. H. A. Giles, “Hist. of Chinese Literature,” 1901, p. 4.

284 Mr. J. H. Middleton, “Pottery,” in Ency. Brit., xix. 633.

285 “Decline and Fall,” &c., iv. 231 n (Bury’s ed.).

286 The Jesuits, “either seduced by some appearance of truth, or thinking it prudent to conciliate the people whom they were attempting to convert, adopted their marvellous relations regarding the antiquity of their science, and spread them over Europe.”—Mr. R. A. Proctor, “Astronomy,” Ency. Brit., ii. 746.

287 “Un bon exemple de la fascination exercée par un récit circonstancié est la légende des origines de la Ligue des trois cantons suisses primitifs (Gessler et les conjurés du Grütli) fabriquée au XVI^e. siècle par Tschudi, devenue classique depuis le ‘Guillaume Tell’ de Schiller, et qu’on a eu tant de peine à extirper.”

288 Introd. aux Études Historiques, pp. 136-7.

289 Mémoires concernant l’Hist., &c., des Chinois, viii. 336.

290 In Journal Asiatique, Oct. 1849, p. 258.

291 In Journal Asiatique, Oct. 1849, P. 91.

292 Reinaud and Favé, in Journal Asiátique, Oct. 1849, p. 284 n.

293 Reinaud and Favé, in Journal Asiatique, Oct. 1849, p. 291.

294 As before, p. 91.

295 Sur la Force des Matières Explosives, ii. 354.

296 i. 48.

297 Howorth’s “Hist. of the Mongols,” iii. 97.

298 Reinaud and Favé, in Journal Asiatique, Oct. 1849, pp. 296, 308.