In 1857, Dr. Bellew seems to have found the ancient belief in the legend
still held by Afghan gentlemen at Kandahar.
At Gelath in Imeretia there still exists one valve of a large iron gate,
traditionally said to be the relic of a pair brought as a trophy from
Derbend by David, King of Georgia, called the Restorer (1089-1130). M.
Brosset, however, has shown it to be the gate of Ganja, carried off in
1139.
(Bayer in Comment. Petropol. I. 401 seqq.; Pseudo-Callisth. by
Mueller, p. 138; Gott. Viterb. in Pistorii Nidani Script. Germ. II.
228; Alexandriade, pp. 310-311; Pereg. IV. p. 118; Acad. des Insc.
Divers Savans, II. 483; Edrisi, II. 416-420, etc.)
NOTE 4. - The box-wood of the Abkhasian forests was so abundant, and formed
so important an article of Genoese trade, as to give the name of Chao de
Bux (Cavo di Bussi) to the bay of Bambor, N.W. of Sukum Kala', where the
traffic was carried on. (See Elie de Laprim. 243.) Abulfeda also speaks
of the Forest of Box (Shara' ul-buks) on the shores of the Black Sea,
from which box-wood was exported to all parts of the world; but his
indication of the exact locality is confused. (Reinaud's Abulf. I. 289.)
At the present time "Boxwood abounds on the southern coast of the Caspian,
and large quantities are exported from near Resht to England and Russia.
It is sent up the Volga to Tsaritzin, from thence by rail to the Don, and
down that river to the Black Sea, from whence it is shipped to England."
(MS. Note, H. Y.)
[Cf. V. Helm's Cultivated Plants, edited by J. S. Stallybrass, Lond.,
1891, The Box Tree, pp. 176-179. - H. C.]
NOTE 5. - Jerome Cardan notices that "the best and biggest goshawks come
from Armenia," a term often including Georgia and Caucasus. The name of
the bird is perhaps the same as 'Afci, "Falco montanus." (See Casiri,
I. 320.) Major St. John tells me that the Terlan, or goshawk, much used
in Persia, is still generally brought from Caucasus. (Cardan, de Rer.
Varietate, VII. 35.)
NOTE 6. - A letter of Warren Hastings, written shortly before his death,
and after reading Marsden's Marco Polo, tells how a fish-breeder of
Banbury warned him against putting pike into his fish-pond, saying, "If
you should leave them where they are till Shrove Tuesday they will be
sure to spawn, and then you will never get any other fish to breed in it."
(Romance of Travel, I. 255.) Edward Webbe in his Travels (1590,
reprinted 1868) tells us that in the "Land of Siria there is a River
having great store of fish like unto Salmon-trouts, but no Jew can catch
them, though either Christian and Turk shall catch them in abundance with
great ease." The circumstance of fish being got only for a limited time in
spring is noticed with reference to Lake Van both by Tavernier and Mr.
Brant.
