It Appears To Me Quite Impossible To Believe That Such Exact Data, Learned At The Very Beginning Of The Great Traveller's Long Wanderings, Could Have Been Reproduced By Him From Memory Alone Close On Thirty Years Later When Dictating His Wonderful Story To Rusticiano During His Captivity At Genoa.

Here, anyhow, we have definite proof of the use of those 'notes and memoranda which he had brought with

Him,' and which, as Ramusio's 'Preface' of 1553 tells us (see Yule, Marco Polo, I., Introduction, p. 6), Messer Marco, while prisoner of war, was believed to have had sent to him by his father from Venice. How grateful must geographer and historical student alike feel for these precious materials having reached the illustrious prisoner safely!"

Introduction, p. 10 n.

KHAKHAN.

"Mr. Rockhill's remarks about the title Khakhan require supplementing. Of course, the Turks did not use the term before 560 (552 was the exact year), because neither they nor their name 'Turk' had any self-assertive existence before then, and until that year they were the 'iron-working slaves' of the Jou-jan. The Khakhan of those last-named Tartars naturally would not allow the petty tribe of Turk to usurp his exclusive and supreme title. But even a century and a half before this, the ruler of the T'u-kuh-hun nomads had already borne the title of Khakhan, which (the late Dr. Bretschneider agreed with me in thinking) was originally of Tungusic and not of Turkish origin. The T'u-kuh-hun were of the same race as the half-Mongol, half-Tungusic Tobas, who ruled for two centuries over North China.... The title of Khakhan, in various bastard forms, was during the tenth century used by the Kings of Khoten and Kuche, as well as by the petty Ouigour Kings of Kan Chou, Si Chou, etc." (E.H. PARKER, Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, pp. 139-140.)

Introduction, p. 19. [The] second start [of the Venetians] from Acre took place about November, 1271.

M. Langlois remarks that the last stay of the Polos at Acre was necessarily before the 18th November, 1271, date of the departure of Gregory X. for the West. Cf. Itineraires a Jerusalem et Descriptions de la Terre-Sainte rediges en francais aux XI'e, XII'e et XIII'e siecles, publ. par H. MICHELANT et G. RAYNAUD (Geneve, 1882), pp. xxviii-xxix:

"La date de 1269, donnee seulement par un des manuscrits de la redaction de Thibaut de Cepoy, pour le premier sejour a Acre des Polo et leur rencontre avec Tedaldo Visconti, qui allait etre elu pape et prendre le nom de Gregoire X., date preferee par tous les editeurs a celles evidemment erronees de Rusticien de Pise (1260) et des huit autres manuscrits de Thibaut de Cepoy (1250 et 1260), n'est pas hors de toute discussion. M.G. Tononi, archipretre de Plaisance, qui prepare une histoire et une edition des ceuvres de Gregoire X., me fait remarquer que les chroniqueurs ne placent le depart de Tedaldo pour la Terre-Sainte qu'apres celui de S. Louis pour Tunis (2 juillet 1270), et que, d'apres un acte du Tresor des Chartes, Tedaldo etait encore a Paris le 28 decembre 1269. Il faudrait done probablement dater de 1271 le premier et le deuxieme sejour des Polo a Acre, et les placer tous deux entre le 9 mai, epoque de l'arrivee en Terre-Sainte d'Edouard d'Angleterre, - avec lequel, suivant l'Eracles, aborda Tedaldo - et le 18 novembre, date du depart du nouveau pape pour l'Occident." (Cf. Hist. litt. de la France, XXXV, Marco Polo.)

Introduction, p. 19 n.

I have here discussed Major Sykes' theory of Polo's itinerary in Persia; the question was raised again by Major Sykes in the Geographical Journal, October, 1905, pp. 462-465. I answered again, and I do not think it necessary to carry on farther this controversy. I recall that Major Sykes writes: "To conclude, I maintain that Marco Polo entered Persia near Tabriz, whence he travelled to Sultania, Kashan, Yezd, Kerman, and Hormuz. From that port, owing to the unseaworthiness of the vessels, the presence of pirates, the fact that the season was past, or for some other reason, he returned by a westerly route to Kerman, and thence crossed the Lut to Khorasan."

I replied in the Geographical Journal, Dec., 1905, pp. 686-687: "Baghdad, after its fall in 1258, did not cease immediately to be 'rather off the main caravan route.' I shall not refer Major Sykes to what I say in my editions of 'Odorico' and 'Polo' on the subject, but to the standard work of Heyd, Commerce du Levant, Vol. 2, pp. 77, 78. The itinerary, Tabriz, Sultania, Kashan, Yezd, was the usual route later on, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and it was followed, among others, by Fra Odorico, of Pordenone. Marco Polo, on his way to the Far East - you must not forget that he was at Acre in 1271 - could not have crossed Sultania, which did not exist, as its building was commenced by Arghun Khan, who ascended the throne in 1284, and was continued by Oeljaitu (1304-1316), who gave the name of Sultania to the city." Cf. Lieut.-Col. P.M. SYKES, A History of Persia, 1915, 2 vols., 8vo; II., p. 181 n.

Introduction, p. 21. M. Pauthier has found a record in the Chinese Annals of the Mongol dynasty, which states that in the year 1277, a certain POLO was nominated a second-class commissioner or agent attached to the Privy Council, a passage which we are happy to believe to refer to our young traveller.

Prof. E.H. Parker remarks (Asiatic Quart. Review, 3rd Series, Vol. XVII., Jan., 1904, pp. 128-131): "M. Pauthier has apparently overlooked other records, which make it clear that the identical individual in question had already received honours from Kublai many years before Marco's arrival in 1275. Perhaps the best way to make this point clear would be to give all the original passages which bear upon the question. The number I give refer to the chapter and page (first half or second half of the double page) of the Yuan Shi:

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