[183] Sismondi, writing of the Eastern story-tellers, among whom are women as well as men, informs us they sometimes “excite terror or pity, but they more frequently picture to their audience those brilliant and fantastic visions which are the patrimony of the eastern imagination.... The physicians frequently recommend them to their patients in order to soothe pain, to calm agitation or to produce sleep after long watchfulness; and these story-tellers, accustomed to sickness, modulate their voices, soften their tones and gently suspend them as sleep steals over the sufferers.” Historical View of the Literature of Southern Europe, Vol. I, p. 62 (Bohn Edition).
[184] The Sheik-ul-Islam issued a vigorous fetwa against it in which he declared that its use “was contrary to the Koran” and that “smoking was a hideous and abominable practice of the Giaours, which no true Believer should adopt.”
[185] “The Eastern nations are generally so addicted to both that they say ‘a dish of coffee and a pipe of tobacco are a complete entertainment’; and the Persians have a proverb that coffee without tobacco is meat without salt.” Sale, The Koran, p. 88, “Preliminary Discourse.”
[186] “Most people who have travelled in the Levant are enthusiastic in their praises of the Turkish coffee which they drank out there. There is no reason why coffee prepared in the Turkish style should not become popular here. There is no difficulty about making it. That the coffee may have the delicious flavor it has in the Levant, the beans must be freshly roasted and ground very fine. The water must be boiled in a tin or copper coffee-pot. To supply, say four or five persons with coffee in tiny cups, two or three teaspoonfuls of the powder should be put into the pot while the water is actually boiling therein. Some people do not like sugar in their coffee, but if sugar is required, it should be put into the boiling water and allowed to melt before the coffee is added. Great sweetness is not appreciated by connoisseurs in coffee drinking. When the ground coffee is added to the boiling water, the pot should be taken off the fire and the coffee stirred up in the water with a teaspoon. Then it should be put on the fire again until the froth rises up. It is then poured into the cups. It is better to pour out the coffee slowly, placing the pot on the fire at short intervals, and thus getting more froth for pouring out into the cups, as the taste of the coffee is supposed to be better with the yellowish froth on the surface. It is on account of this idea that greedy people in Turkey choose those cups that have the most froth when coffee is handed round on a tray, leaving those with less to the others who are waiting their turn to be served.” Halil Halid’s Diary of a Turk, p. 244 (London, 1903).
[187] In marked contrast to this wildly lyrical praise of the fragrant and delicious beverage made from the Arabian berry, is the denunciation which was hurled against it by the orthodox followers of Islam who declared it to be a menace to public morals and one of the four ministers of the Devil—the other three being wine, opium, and tobacco. “During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries coffee-drinkers were persecuted more rigorously in Constantinople than wine-bibbers have ever been in England or America. Their most unrelenting enemy was the bloody Murad IV—himself a drunkard—who forbade the use of coffee under pain of death. He and his nephew, Mehmed IV, after him used to patrol the city in disguise, à la Harun-al-Rashid, in order to detect and punish for themselves any violation of the law.... A personage no more straitlaced than Charles II caused a court to hand down the following decision: ‘The Retayling of Coffe may be an innocente Trayde; but as it is used to nourisshe Sedition, spredde Lyes, and scandalyse Greate Mene, it may also be a common Nuissaunce.’” Constantinople Old and New, p. 24 (by H. G. Dwight, New York, 1915).
[188] The Beauties of the Bosphorus, p. 127 (London, 1839).
[189] Cf. his Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 439 et seq. (New York; Géographie Botanique Raisonnée (Paris, 1885).
[190] Historical Sketches, Vol. I, p. 116, 117 (by Cardinal Newman, London, 1901).
[191] Cf. Discovery in Greek Lands, p. 57 et seq. (by F. H. Marshall, Cambridge, 1920). See also A Century of Archæological Discoveries, p. 166 ff. (by A. Michaelis, New York, 1908).
Nothing impressed us more during our journey through Anatolia than the utter destruction of those superb cities of which a Roman author once wrote,
Of many of these even the sites were unknown until they were recently discovered by the archæologists of Europe. The site of the famous temple of Diana at Ephesus was not identified until 1869, although this celebrated structure was once classed as one of the seven wonders of the world. Nowhere in Asia Minor does one find anything to compare with the stately temples of Pæstum, Girgenti, and Segesta which, with the exception of the wonderful monuments in Athens, are the most remarkable and best preserved groups of ancient Greek architecture in existence.
[192] The region through which they marched was described in the graphic language of an old chronicler as Terram horroris et salsuginis, terram siccam, sterilem, inamœnam.
[193] The History of the Crusades, Vol. 1. p. 126 (New York, n. d.).
[194] Ibid., p. 257.
[195] Ibid., p. 258.
[196] Called by Cicero Tauri-Pylæ.
[197] As legend has it, Charlemagne sleeps in Odenberg, in Hesse, where crowned and armed and girt with his trusty sword, La Joyeuse, he awaits the advent of Anti-Christ when he will awake and deliver Christendom.
Bonaparte, it is supposed in certain parts of France, will again return to restore the country to its pristine glory. When Louis Napoleon submitted the plebiscite to the countrymen, many gave their vote under the impression that it was in support of his famous uncle.
[198] Lares et Penates or Cilicia and Its Governors, p. 79 (by W. B. Barker, London, 1853).
[199] Barker, op. cit., p. 82.
[200] The legend about people sleeping preternatural lengths of time has an honored place in the folklore of many nations in both the East and the West. We have already noted the traditions concerning the long sleeps of Barbarossa, Charlemagne, Napoleon, and other distinguished characters. But many other instances might be enumerated showing the prevalence of similar tales in many lands from the sleepers of Sardis, mentioned by Aristotle, to Rip Van Winkle, immortalized by Washington Irving.
[201] Cf. Strabo, XIV, 5; and Arrian’s Anabasis of Alexander, II, 5. For an account of Asurbanipal, in the light of recent Assyrian discoveries, see Graven in the Rock, Chap. XIV (by S. Kinns, London, 1891).
[203] History of Greece, Vol. X, p. 311 (by W. Mitford, London, 1810).
[204] The Greek word for pinion is tarsos.
[205] Cf. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, I. 6; VIII. 7. 2. The Jewish historian was probably misled by the similarity of sounds of the two words and ventured to solve what has always been a riddle to historians and Scripture commentators.
[206] “Oppidum autem Britanni vocant,” says Cæsar, referring to the capital of Cassivellaunus, now London, “cum sylvas impeditas vallo atque fossa munierunt, quo incursiones hostium vitandæ causa convenire consuerunt.” De Bello Gallico, Lib. V, Cap. 21.
[207] Strabo, Geography, XIV, 51.
[208] J. B. Lightfoot in Philippians, Appendix on St. Paul and Seneca, p. 271.
[209] The Cities of St. Paul, Their Influence on His Life and Thought, pp. 88, 89 (London, 1907).
[210] The Heathen World and St. Paul, p. 20 (by E. H. Plumptre, London, n.d).
[211] Acts of the Apostles, xvii; 6.
[212] In one of his beautiful homilies on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, St. John Chrysostom, the greatest of pulpit orators, declares: “I honor Rome for this reason; for, though I could celebrate her praises on many other accounts;—for her greatness, for her beauty, for her power, for her wealth, for her warlike exploits, yet, passing over all these things, I glorify her for this reason, that St. Paul in his lifetime wrote to the Romans, and loved them, and was present among them and conversed with them, and ended his life among them. Wherefore the city is on this account renowned more than all others; on this account I admire her, not on account of her gold, her columns or her other splendid decorations.” Oeuvres Complètes de Saint Jean Chrysostome, Tom XVI, p. 308 (Paris, 1871).
[213] Across Asia Minor on Foot, pp. 35, 351 (by W. J. Childs, New York, 1917).
[214] The massacre in Constantinople which so horrified the civilized world was, like that in Adana, provoked by the revolutionary activities of the Armenians. After having boldly announced their intention of applying the torch to the city and “reducing it,” as their posted placards phrased it, “to a desert of ashes,” a party of audacious young conspirators proceeded to blow up the Ottoman Imperial Bank, while others of their associates made the Psammatia quarter flow in the blood of helpless inhabitants. During eighteen hours of terror the carnage which the Armenians caused by their use of dynamite and by throwing bombs from the windows upon the Turkish soldiers, who were detailed to suppress the outbreak, rivaled anything recorded in the worst days of the Paris Commune of 1871. Cf. Turquie Agonisante, p. 174 (by Pierre Loti).
Without pretending to absolve the exasperated Turks for their part in this appalling massacre, I may ask “what would the people of New York do if a foreign mob from the East Side with the red flag at their head were to attempt to blow up the Subtreasury Building and to make the same use of high explosives in their wanton destruction of life and property as did the Armenians in their ghastly work in Constantinople?” The answer will be sufficient attenuation for the conduct of the infuriated Turks on this frightful occasion. And yet, according to the reports flashed through the world at the time, this massacre, like that at Adana and at numberless other places, was laid to the charge of the “unspeakable Turk.” It was the old, old story; the Turk is always guilty, the Armenian never.
[215] A Wandering Scholar in the Levant, pp. 147–150 (London, 1896).
[216] Pierre Loti tells of a French consul in Asia Minor who barely escaped assassination at the hands of an Armenian agitator who, when questioned regarding his attempt on the life of the functionary, coolly replied: “I did this in order that the Turks might be accused of it and in the hope that the French would rise up against them after the murder of their consul.” Les Massacres d’Arménie, p. 50 (Paris, 1918).
[217] The Diary of a Turk, p. 130.
[218] D. G. Hogarth, op. cit., p. 77.
[219] Ibid., 65.
[220] Halil Halid’s Diary of a Turk, p. 129 (London, 1903). “Alors,” declares Pierre Loti, “comme des lions exaspérés ils se dechaînent contre ceux que, depuis des siècles, on leur a denoncés comme les plus dangereux responsables de tous les malheurs de la patrie.... Hélas! oui, les Turcs ont massacré! Je pretends toutefois que le recit de leur tueries a toujours été follement exagéré et les details enlaidis à plaisir; je pretends aussi—et personne là-bas n’osera me contredire—que la beaucoup plus lourde part des crimes commis revient aux Kurdes dont je n’ai jamais pris la defense.” Op. cit., p. 22–24.
[221] Commenting on this subject Professor, now Sir William Ramsay, writes, “Lord Salisbury protests in the strongest terms that Britain has never entertained any schemes of acquisition in Asia Minor. There is, however, probably no Russian or German or Frenchman who believes him.... The protestations that Britain entertains no designs in Asia Minor merely make people abroad all the more sure that a British statesman’s word can never be trusted.” And, referring to her creation of a new consular department to aid her in compassing her designs, he observes “as a piece of statesmanship, crafty and unscrupulous, but able, it was a master-stroke; though I think no one among us will ever look back to it without blushing for the jockeying by which it was effected.” Impressions of Turkey During Twelve Years Wanderings, pp. 142–144 (London, 1897).
In the light of recent events how significant—almost prophetic—are these words of Sir William on British policy and diplomacy regarding Turkey!
[223] Count Marcellinus, one of the first ministers of Justinian, vividly describes, in a single sentence, the frightful depredations of Attila when this dreadful “Scourge of God” Pene totam Europam, invasis excisique civitatibus atque castellis, conrasit. This sentence perfectly describes the depredations of Timur and Jenghiz Khan during their terror-inspiring careers in Western Asia. Of Jenghiz Khan the Arabian traveler, Ibn Batuta, writes that he “came into the countries of Islamism and destroyed them.” The same authority says that after destroying such great cities as Bokhara and Samarcand “he killed the inhabitants, taking prisoners the youth only and leaving the country quite desolate. He then passed over the Gihon and took possession of all Khorasan and Irak, destroying the cities and slaughtering the inhabitants.” His son, Hulaku, laid Bagdad in ruins, whence he proceeded with his followers to Syria, continuing his depredations “until divine Providence put an end to his career.” The Travels of Ibn Batuta, pp. 87, 88, 89 (trans. by S. Lee, London, 1829).
The English historian, Marshman, writing of the elder Mongol conqueror, declares: “From the Caspian to the Indus, more than one thousand miles in extent, the whole country was laid waste with fire and sword by the ruthless barbarians who followed Jenghiz Khan. It was the greatest calamity which had befallen the human race since the Deluge and five centuries have been barely sufficient to repair that desolation.” History of India from Remote Antiquity to the Accession of the Mogul Dynasty, Vol. I, p. 49 (London, 1842).
“Well might the Mussulman and Christian world shrink down upon its knees in the presence of such a terrible visitation. ‘We pray God,’ writes Ibin al Athir, ‘that He will send to Islam and to the Mussulmans someone who can protect them, for they are the victims of the most terrible calamity, the men killed, their goods pillaged, their children carried off, their wives reduced to slavery or put to death, the country in fact, laid waste.’ Juveni says that in the country traversed by the Mongols, only a thousandth part of the population remained and where there were previously one hundred thousand inhabitants there remained but a hundred. ‘If nothing interferes with the growth of the population in Khorasan and Irak Ajem from now to the day of resurrection,’ he adds, ‘it will not be the tenths of what it was before the conquest.’” History of the Mongols, Part III, p. i (by H. Howorth, London, 1888).
Jenghiz Khan and “his followers tramped over the fairest portions of the earth with the faggot and the sword in their hands, forestalling the day of doom and crumbling into ruin many old civilizations. His creed was to sweep away all cities as the haunts of slaves and of luxury, that his herds might freely feed upon grass whose green was free from dusty feet. It does make one hide one’s face in terror to read that from 1211 to 1223 eighteen million four hundred and seventy thousand human beings perished in China and Tangut alone at the hands of Jenghiz and his followers; a fearful hecatomb which haunts the memory until one forgets the other features of the story.” Howorth, op. cit., Part I, p. 113.
[224] Pliny in his Historia Naturalis, II, 86, writes: Maximus terræ memoria mortalium extitit motus, Tiberii Cæsaria principatu; XII urbibus Asiæ una nocte prostatis.
[225] History of Greece From Its Conquests by the Romans to the Present Time, B.C. 146 to A.D. 1864, Vol. I, p. 224 (by George Finlay, Oxford, 1877).
[226] I do not ignore the atrocities which the Turks, especially during the last few decades, are alleged to have committed in Armenia and elsewhere. But until reliable testimony as to the Ottoman side of the question is forthcoming it is only fair to the accused for one to suspend judgment.
[227] Mahomet et le Coran, p. vii (Paris, 1865).
[228] “Neque in hoc me falli opinor cum hodieque non paucos ex nostris, alioquin non indoctos, Mahumeticarum rerum tam rudes videam, ut Mahumetanos Idolatras, Lunæque ac Mahumeti adoratores existiment, aliasque de Agarenica secta ejusque Auctore neptias effutiant.” Alcorani Textus Universus, Tom. I, p. 6 (Patavii, 1698).
Padre Lodovico Marracci, who was a religious of the order of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God, was the confessor of Pope Innocent XII. It was in obedience to the command of this Pontiff that he published his great work on the Koran on which he spent forty of the best years in his life. It embraces three folio volumes with the text of the Koran in Arabic, accompanied by a Latin translation and copious notes, and is notable as being the most successful of the earlier attempts to make the Koran and Mohammedanism known to the Christian world.
[229] Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammed, Vol. II, p. 181 (Berlin, 1862).
[232] Porcorum verum esum, justa prorsus ratione, contemnunt qui morsibus eorum dominum consumserunt. Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Tom. IV, p. 130 (Paris, 1879).
[233] “As a sample of the controversial works of the theologians of the Reformed Church on this subject,” Mr. R. B. Smith in his interesting work on Mohammed and Mohammedanism, p. 79 (London, 1876), calls attention to “the following modest title-page of a ponderous work written in 1666: Anti-Christus Mahometes: ubi non solum per Sanctam Scripturam, ac Reformatorum testimonia, verum etiam per omnes alios probandi modos et genera, plene, fuse, imvicte solideque demonstratur Mahometem esse unum illum verum, magnum de quo in Sacris fit mentio, Antichristum.”
[234] Mohammedanism, p. 12 (New York, 1916).
[235] Historia Orientalis, Dedicatio, p. 5 (by J. H. Hottinger, Zurich, 1660).
[236] “Quod vero dissimulandum non est, licet quidam docte, satis solideque scripserint, nonnulli ex rerum Sarracenicarum ignorantia, vera plerumque omittentes, ficta ac fabulosa in medium protulerunt, quæ Mahumetanis risus excitarent eosque in errore suo obstinatiores efficerent.” Alcorani Textus Universus, Tom. I, p. 1 (Patavii, 1698).
[237] Referring to the widespread errors concerning Mohammed and his teachings the eminent Orientalist, Adrian Reland, wrote more than two centuries ago: “Quotidie magis magisque experior mundum decipi velle et præconceptis opinionibus regi”—I daily become more and more convinced that the world wishes to be deceived and is governed by preconceived opinions. De Religione Mohammedica, p. xxii (Utrecht, 1705). Is there not still room for improvement in this respect?
[238] “Mohammed litt an einer Krankheit, welche in jener ausgepragten Form, wie bei ihm, in unseren Gegenden bisweilen bei Frauen, aber selten bei Mannern vorkommt, Mann hat ihr verschiedene Namen gegeben; Schönlein heisst sie hysteria muscularis.” Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 207.
[239] “Nulla porro falsa doctrina eat quæ non aliqua vera intermisceat.” Quæst, Evang. II. 40.
[240] Handbuch der allgemeinen Kirchengeschicte, Vol. I, p. 748 (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1884).
“It can be readily understood how the sight of the Muslim trader at prayer, his frequent prostrations, his absorbed and silent worship of the Unseen, would impress the heathen African, endowed with that strong sense of the mysterious such as generally accompanies a low stage of civilization. Curiosity would naturally prompt inquiry and the knowledge of Islam thus imparted might sometimes win over a convert who might have turned aside had it been offered unsought, as a free gift.” The Preaching of Islam, p. 418 (by T. W. Arnold, London, 1913).
This view was emphasized by good old Father Marracci more than two centuries ago when he wrote: “Si ethnicus humani intellectus captum excedentia, vel naturali conditioni et imbecilitati dificillima, si non impossibilia, ... cum Alcoranica doctrina comparaverit, statim ab his refugiet et ad illa obviis ulnis accurret.” Op. cit., Tom. II, p. 9.
[241] Cf. J. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, op. cit., p. x.
[242] De Heresibus Liber, Patrologia Græca, Vol. XVIV, Col. 763 et seq. (Migne Edition).
[243] “Summa vero hujus hæresis intentio est ut Christus Dominus ut neque Deus neque Dei Filius esse credatur; sed licet magnus Deoque dilectus homo tamen purus et vir quidem sapiens et propheta maximus. Quæ quidem olim diaboli machinatione concepta primo per Arium seminata deinde per istum Satanam, scilicet Machumet, provecta, per Antichristum vero ex toto secundum diabolicam intentionem complebitur.” Petri Venerabilis Opera Omnia, col. 655, Patrologia Latina, Vol. Tom. CLXXXIX (Migne Edition).
[244] “Seminator di scandalo e di scisma.” Inferno, XXVIII, 35.
[245] C. Snouck Hurgronje, Mohammedanism, p. 129, et seq. (New York, 1916).
[246] The duty of the imam “is to stand in front of the congregation, facing the Kibleh or Mecca-pointing niche, at the appointed hours of devotion, that is ordinarily, as every one knows, five times a day, when he recites aloud the public prayers, marks time for the various devotional postures, and, in a word, acts as fugleman to the worshipers ranged behind him, from whom, however, he is distinguished by no special dress, caste or character! Primus inter pares; but nothing more. The Khatib, or preacher, usually reads out of an old, well-thumbed manuscript sermon book, or, though much more rarely, delivers extempore the Friday discourse, a short performance, seldom exceeding ten minutes in duration.... Once outside the mosque, the imam, the khatib, or whoever else may have officiated during the prayers, is a house-mason, a green-grocer, or pipe-maker, or anything else, as before.” Essays on Eastern Questions, p. 91, et seq. (by W. G. Palgrave, London, 1872).
[247] Op. cit., p. 82.
[248] The word “mosque” is derived from the Arabic masjid which signifies a place of worship.
[249] For a full description of Beith Allah—house of God—and the holy Kaaba, “Navel of the World,” as the Arabian geographer, Ibn Haukal, calls it, see Sir Richard Burton’s A Pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca, Chaps. XXIV, XXV.
[250] Cf. Aspects of Islam, p. 199 et seq. (by D. B. MacDonald, New York, 1911).
[251] Bibliothèque Orientale, Tom. II, p. 81 (by Barthèlemy d’Herbelot, The Hague, 1777).
[252] D’Herbelot, op. cit., Tom. II, p. 106.
[253] D’Herbelot, op. cit., Tom. II, p. 351.
[254] Op. cit., p. 122, et seq.
[255] Mohammed and Islam, p. 45 (by Ignaz Goldziher, trans, by K. C. Seelye, New Haven, 1917).
[256] Mohammed and Mohammedanism, p. 334. et seq. (by R. B. Smith. London, 1876).
[257] Studies in a Mosque, p. 169 (London, 1893).
[258] “The spiritual energy of Islam is not, as has been so often maintained, commensurate with its political power. On the contrary, the loss of political power and worldly prosperity has served to bring to the front the finer spiritual qualities which are the truest incentives to missionary work. Islam has learned the uses of adversity and so far from a decline in worldly prosperity being a presage of the decay of this faith, it is significant that those very Muslim countries that have been longest under Christian rule show themselves most active in the work of proselyting. The Indian and Malay Mohammedans display a zeal and enthusiasm for the spread of the faith, which one looks for in vain in Turkey and Morocco.” T. W. Arnold, op. cit., p. 426, 427.
[259] According to Dr. Hubert Jansen’s painstaking Verbreitung des Islams, the number of Mohammedans in the world in 1897 was 259,680,672.
[260] “Si les Mussulmans et les Chrétiens me prâtaient l’oreille, je ferais cesser leur divergence, et ils diviendraient frères à l’extérieur et à l’intérieur.” Rappel à l’Intelligent, Avis à Indifferent, p. 105 (Paris, 1858).
[261] An American writer, referring to the Italian campaign in Tripoli, asks: “Is there rain enough in the sweet heavens to wash away the stain on Italy’s fair name made deep and black by ruthless massacre?” G. F. Herrick in Christian and Mohammedan, p. 236 (New York, 1912).
And an English author writing of the British war on the Gold Coast declares: “Our ‘prestige’ serves as an excuse for committing what we should condemn as crimes in any other nation. It is an entity that has juggled us into the belief that to destroy what we cannot retain is the prerogative not of barbarism, but of civilization and Christianity.... Truly this war will be a damnosa hereditas to posterity, alike whether we accept or disclaim the fearful responsibilities in which it has involved us.” R. B. Smith, op. cit., p. 258.
[262] “Aggredior vos non, ut nostri sæpe faciunt, armis sed verbis; non vi, sed ratione; non odio, sed amore.” Peter the Venerable, op. cit., col. 673. “I attack you, not as our people often do with arms, but with words; not by force but by reason; not in hate but in love.” These are the words with which Peter the Venerable opens his first book against Mussulmans and shows what should be the attitude of the missionary that would have a hearing with a people who are as proud and sensitive as are the followers of Mohammed.
[263] For a helpful map, indicating the course of the Royal Road, the reader is referred to the third volume of Rawlinson’s Five Great Monarchies (New York, 1881). Much light is also thrown on this interesting subject by Rennell’s valuable work, The Geographical System of Herodotus, Vol. I, Sec. 13 (London, 1830).
It is well, in reference to this subject, to recollect that the ordinary policy of the Asiatic monarchies was not that of holding immense continuous areas of territory, but the comparatively simpler one of safeguarding the great highways of communication. “It is important to remember this in connection with rapid conquest like that of Alexander. To conquer the Achæmenian empire did not mean the effective occupation of all the area within its extreme frontiers—that would have been a task exceeding one man’s lifetime—but the conquest of its cultivated districts and the holding of the roads which connected them.” Cf. The House of Seleucus, Vol. I, p. 22 (by E. R. Bevan, London, 1902).
[264] Mishkab V, 6. Hughes’ Dictionary of Islam, p. 635 (London, 1885).
[265] Mohammedanism, p. 85 (New York, 1916).
[266] Missionary Review, 1889, p. 302.
[267] Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah, p. 299 (by Richard F. Burton, Boston, 1858).
[268] “But for the earthquakes which have here and there rent the walls and caused the roofs to fall in nothing would be missing except the woodwork carried off by the builders of more recent cities. The removal of the basalts and other hard materials drawn from the quarries of the district would have been too troublesome and expensive.” The Earth and Its Inhabitants, Vol. IV, p. 285 (New York, 1885).
[269] “Nel far le mercanzie, non si contano, ma si pesano casse intere di denari; e non si fa mai compra o vendita dove non corran quaranta, cinquanta, ottanta o centomila que piu a minuto non si parla e sarebbe vergogna.” Viaggi di Pietro della Valle, Vol. I, p. 331 (Brighton, 1843).
When one remembers the purchasing power of money in the time of the illustrious patrician compared with what it is now, the sums mentioned were indeed considerable.
[270] Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 353.
[271] The Voyage of John Huyghen Van Linschoten to the East Indies, Vol. I, p. 48 (pub. by the Hakluyt Society, London, 1885). “Merchants come thither”—Ormuz—“from India with ships loaded with spicery and precious stones, pearls, cloths of silk and gold, elephants’ teeth and many other wares, which they sell to the merchants of Hormos”—Ormuz—“and which these in turn carry all over the world to dispose of again. In fact ’tis a city of immense trade.” The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, Vol. I, p. 107 (trans. by H. Yule, London, 1903).
[272] Hakluyt’s Voyages, Vol. V, p. 446 (Glasgow, 1904).
[273] “Mettendo attorno al campo della carovana ... molte sentinelle che tutta la notte scorrevano intorno e gridavano, (secondo la lors usanza) agli amici que stessero all ’erta ed ai nemici che non si accostassero.” Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 353.