Xxiv.), exclaims:
"Par Mahon ...
Vous estes Diex en terre, autre coze n'i a!" (I. p. 360.)
So also Fr. Jacopo d'Aqui in the Imago Mundi, says of the Assassins:
"Dicitur iis quod sunt in Paradiso magno Dei Terreni" - expressions, no
doubt, taken in both cases from Polo's book.
Khanikoff, and before him J. R. Forster, have supposed that the name
Mulehet represents Alamut. But the resemblance is much closer and more
satisfactory to Mulhid or Mulahidah. Mulhet is precisely the name by
which the kingdom of the Ismailites is mentioned in Armenian history, and
Mulihet is already applied in the same way by Rabbi Benjamin in the 12th
century, and by Rubruquis in the 13th. The Chinese narrative of Hulaku's
expedition calls it the kingdom of Mulahi. (Joinville, p. 138; J.
As. ser. II., tom. xii. 285; Benj. Tudela, p. 106; Rub. p. 265;
Remusat, Nouv. Melanges, I. 176; Gaubil, p. 128; Pauthier, pp.
cxxxix.-cxli.; Mon. Hist. Patr. Scriptorum, III. 1559, Turin, 1848.)
[Cf. on Mulehet, melahideh, Heretics, plural of molhid. Heretic, my
note, pp. 476-482 of my ed. of Friar Odoric. - H. C.]
"Old Man of the Mountain" was the title applied by the Crusaders to the
chief of that branch of the sect which was settled in the mountains north
of Lebanon, being a translation of his popular Arabic title
Shaikh-ul-Jibal. But according to Hammer this title properly belonged, as
Polo gives it, to the Prince of Alamut, who never called himself Sultan,
Malik, or Amir; and this seems probable, as his territory was known as the
Balad-ul-Jibal. (See Abulf. in Buesching, V. 319.)
[1] Elliot, II. 290.
CHAPTER XXIV.
HOW THE OLD MAN USED TO TRAIN HIS ASSASSINS.
When therefore they awoke, and found themselves in a place so charming,
they deemed that it was Paradise in very truth. And the ladies and damsels
dallied with them to their hearts' content, so that they had what young
men would have; and with their own good will they never would have quitted
the place.
Now this Prince whom we call the Old One kept his Court in grand and noble
style, and made those simple hill-folks about him believe firmly that he
was a great Prophet. And when he wanted one of his Ashishin to send on
any mission, he would cause that potion whereof I spoke to be given to one
of the youths in the garden, and then had him carried into his Palace. So
when the young man awoke, he found himself in the Castle, and no longer in
that Paradise; whereat he was not over well pleased. He was then conducted
to the Old Man's presence, and bowed before him with great veneration as
believing himself to be in the presence of a true Prophet.
