Henry
II.): -
"Aurum mittit Arabs ...
Seres purpureas vestes; Galli sua vina;
Norwegi, Russi, varium, grysium, sabelinas."
Russia was overrun with fire and sword as far as Tver and Torshok by Batu
Khan (1237-1238), some years before his invasion of Poland and Silesia.
Tartar tax-gatherers were established in the Russian cities as far north
as Rostov and Jaroslawl, and for many years Russian princes as far as
Novgorod paid homage to the Mongol Khans in their court at Sarai. Their
subjection to the Khans was not such a trifle as Polo seems to imply; and
at least a dozen Russian princes met their death at the hands of the
Mongol executioner.
[Illustration: Mediaeval Russian Church. (From Fergusson.)]
NOTE 2. - The Lac of this passage appears to be WALLACHIA. Abulfeda calls
the Wallachs Aulak; Rubruquis Illac, which he says is the same word as
Blac (the usual European form of those days being Blachi, Blachia), but
the Tartars could not pronounce the B (p. 275). Abulghazi says the original
inhabitants of Kipchak were the Urus, the Olaks, the Majars, and the
Bashkirs.
Rubruquis is wrong in placing Illac or Wallachs in Asia; at least the
people near the Ural, who he says were so-called by the Tartars, cannot
have been Wallachs. Professor Bruun, who corrects my error in following
Rubruquis, thinks those Asiatic Blac must have been Polovtzi, or
Cumanians.
[Mr. Rockhill (Rubruck, p. 130, note) writes: "A branch of the Volga
Bulgars occupied the Moldo-Vallach country in about A.D. 485, but it was
not until the first years of the 6th century that a portion of them passed
the Danube under the leadership of Asparuk, and established themselves in
the present Bulgaria, Friar William's 'Land of Assan.'" - H.C.]
NOTE 3.
