Ed. II. 674; Gottwaldt's Hamza Ispahanensis, p. 161;
and Quatremere in J. A. ser. V. tom. xv. 173.) Ibn Batuta only once
mentions the name, saying that Tughlak Shah of Dehli was "one of those
Turks called Karaunas who dwell in the mountains between Sind and
Turkestan." Hammer has suggested the derivation of the word Carbine from
Karawinah (as he writes), and a link in such an etymology is perhaps
furnished by the fact that in the 16th century the word Carbine was used
for some kind of irregular horseman.
(Gold. Horde, 214; Ilch. I. 17, 344, etc.; Erdmann, 168, 199, etc.;
J. A. S., B. X. 96; Q. R. 130; Not. et Ext. XIV. 282; I. B. III.
201; Ed. Webbe, his Travailes, p. 17, 1590. Reprinted 1868.)
As regards the account given by Marco of the origin of the Caraonas, it
seems almost necessarily a mistaken one. As Khanikoff remarks, he might
have confounded them with the Biluchis, whose Turanian aspect (at least as
regards the Brahuis) shows a strong infusion of Turki blood, and who might
be rudely described as a cross between Tartars and Indians. It is indeed
an odd fact that the word Karani (vulgo Cranny) is commonly applied in
India at this day to the mixed race sprung from European fathers and
Native mothers, and this might be cited in corroboration of Marsden's
reference to the Sanskrit Karana, but I suspect the coincidence arises
in another way. Karana is the name applied to a particular class of mixt
blood, whose special occupation was writing and accounts.
