Quat. p. 122;
Ramusio, II. 109; El. de Laprim. 276; V. du Chev. Gamba, I. 298.)
[The phenomenal rise in the production of the Baku oil-fields between
1890-1900, may be seen at a glance from the Official Statistics where the
total output for 1900 is given as 601,000,000 poods, about 9,500,000 tons.
(Cf. Petroleum, No. 42, vol. ii. p. 13.)]
[1] Polo's contemporary, the Indian Poet Amir Khusru, puts in the mouth
of his king Kaikobad a contemptuous gibe at the Mongols with their
cotton-quilted dresses. (Elliot, III. p. 526.)
CHAPTER IV.
OF GEORGIANIA AND THE KINGS THEREOF.
In GEORGIANIA there is a King called David Melic, which is as much as to
say "David King"; he is subject to the Tartar.[NOTE 1] In old times all
the kings were born with the figure of an eagle upon the right shoulder.
The people are very handsome, capital archers, and most valiant soldiers.
They are Christians of the Greek Rite, and have a fashion of wearing their
hair cropped, like Churchmen.[NOTE 2]
This is the country beyond which Alexander could not pass when he wished
to penetrate to the region of the Ponent, because that the defile was so
narrow and perilous, the sea lying on the one hand, and on the other lofty
mountains impassable to horsemen. The strait extends like this for four
leagues, and a handful of people might hold it against all the world.
Alexander caused a very strong tower to be built there, to prevent the
people beyond from passing to attack him, and this got the name of the
IRON GATE. This is the place that the Book of Alexander speaks of, when it
tells us how he shut up the Tartars between two mountains; not that they
were really Tartars, however, for there were no Tartars in those days, but
they consisted of a race of people called COMANIANS and many besides.[NOTE
3]
[Illustration: Mediaeval Georgian Fortress, from a drawing dated 1634. "La
provence est tonte plene de grant montagne et d'estroit pas et de fort"]
[In this province all the forests are of box-wood.[NOTE 4]] There are
numerous towns and villages, and silk is produced in great abundance. They
also weave cloths of gold, and all kinds of very fine silk stuffs. The
country produces the best goshawks in the world [which are called
Avigi].[NOTE 5] It has indeed no lack of anything, and the people live
by trade and handicrafts. 'Tis a very mountainous region, and full of
strait defiles and of fortresses, insomuch that the Tartars have never
been able to subdue it out and out.
There is in this country a certain Convent of Nuns called St. Leonard's,
about which I have to tell you a very wonderful circumstance.
