Have settled in the Levant have adopted the
customs of the Saracens.[NOTE 7]
NOTE 1. - The bow was the characteristic weapon of the Tartars, insomuch
that the Armenian historians often call them "The Archers." (St. Martin,
II. 133.) "CUIRBOULY, leather softened by boiling, in which it took any
form or impression required, and then hardened." (Wright's Dict.) The
English adventurer among the Tartars, whose account of them is given by
Archbishop Ivo of Narbonne, in Matthew Paris (sub. 1243), says: "De
coriis bullitis sibi arma levia quidem, sed tamen impenetrabilia
coaptarunt." This armour is particularly described by Plano Carpini
(p. 685). See the tail-piece to Book IV.
[Mr. E. H. Parker (China Review, XXIV. iv. p. 205) remarks that "the
first coats of mail were made in China in 1288: perhaps the idea was
obtained from the Malays or Arabs." - H. C.]
NOTE 2. - M. Pauthier has judiciously pointed out the omissions that have
occurred here, perhaps owing to Rusticiano's not properly catching the
foreign terms applied to the various grades. In the G. Text the passage
runs: "Et sachies que les cent mille est apelle un Tut (read tuc) et
les dix mille un Toman, et les por milier et por centenier et por
desme." In Pauthier's (uncorrected) text one of the missing words is
supplied:
