In the account of the Battle with Nayan (i. p. 337) this class alone
speaks of the two-stringed instruments which the Tartars played whilst
awaiting the signal for battle. But the circumstance appears elsewhere
in the G. T. (p. 250).
In the chapter on Malabar (vol. ii. p. 390), it is said that the
ships which go with cargoes towards Alexandria are not one-tenth of
those that go to the further East. This is not in the older French.
In the chapter on Coilun (ii. p. 375), we have a notice of the
Columbine ginger so celebrated in the Middle Ages, which is also
absent from the older text.
[4] See vol. ii. p. 439. It is, however, remarkable that a like mistake is
made about the Persian Gulf (see i. 63, 64). Perhaps Polo thought in
Persian, in which the word darya means either sea or a large
river. The same habit and the ambiguity of the Persian sher led him
probably to his confusion of lions and tigers (see i. 397).
[5] Such are Pasciai-Dir and Ariora Kesciemur (i. p. 98.)
[6] Thus the MSS. of this type have elected the erroneous readings
Bolgara, Cogatra, Chiato, Cabanant, etc., instead of the correcter
Bolgana, Cocacin, Quiacatu, Cobinan, where the G. T. presents both
(supra, p. 86). They read Esanar for the correct Etzina; Chascun
for Casvin; Achalet for Acbalec; Sardansu for Sindafu,
Kayteu, Kayton, Sarcon for Zaiton or Caiton; Soucat for
Locac; Falec for Ferlec, and so on, the worse instead of the
better.
