The Travels of Marco Polo
Chapter 51 : 303-311.) NOTE 3.--Paipurth, or Baiburt, on the high road between Trebizond and Erzrum,

303-311.)

NOTE 3.--Paipurth, or Baiburt, on the high road between Trebizond and Erzrum, was, according to Neumann, an Armenian fortress in the first century, and, according to Ritter, the castle _Baiberdon_ was fortified by Justinian. It stands on a peninsular hill, encircled by the windings of the R. Charok. [According to Ramusio's version Baiburt was the third relay from Trebizund to Tauris, and travellers on their way from one of these cities to the other pa.s.sed under this stronghold.--H. C.] The Russians, in retiring from it in 1829, blew up the greater part of the defences. The nearest silver mines of which we find modern notice, are those of _Gumish-Khanah_ ("Silverhouse"), about 35 miles N.W. of Baiburt; they are more correctly mines of lead rich in silver, and were once largely worked.

But the _Masalak-al-absar_ (14th century), besides these, speaks of two others in the same province, one of which was near _Bajert_. This Quatremere reasonably would read _Babert_ or Baiburt. (_Not. et Extraits_, XIII. i. 337; _Texier_, _Armenie_, I. 59.)

NOTE 4.--Josephus alludes to the belief that Noah's Ark still existed, and that pieces of the pitch were used as amulets. (_Ant._ I. 3. 6.)

Ararat (16,953 feet) was ascended, first by Prof. Parrot, September 1829; by Spa.s.ski Aotonomoff, August 1834; by Behrens, 1835; by Ab.i.+.c.h, 1845; by Seymour in 1848; by Khodzko, Khanikoff, and others, for trigonometrical and other scientific purposes, in August 1850. It is characteristic of the account from which I take these notes (_Longrimoff_, in _Bull. Soc. Geog.

Paris_, ser. IV. tom. i. p. 54), that whilst the writer's countrymen, Spa.s.ski and Behrens, were "moved by a n.o.ble curiosity," the Englishman is only admitted to have "gratified a tourist's whim"!

NOTE 5.--Though Mr. Khanikoff points out that springs of naphtha are abundant in the vicinity of Tiflis, the mention of _s.h.i.+p-loads_ (in Ramusio indeed altered, but probably by the Editor, to _camel-loads_), and the vast quant.i.ties spoken of, point to the naphtha-wells of the Baku Peninsula on the Caspian. Ricold speaks of their supplying the whole country as far as Baghdad, and Barbaro alludes to the practice of anointing camels with the oil. The quant.i.ty collected from the springs about Baku was in 1819 estimated at 241,000 _poods_ (nearly 4000 tons), the greater part of which went to Persia. (_Pereg. Quat._ p. 122; _Ramusio_, II. 109; _El. de Laprim._ 276; _V. du Chev. Gamba_, I. 298.)

[The phenomenal rise in the production of the Baku oil-fields between 1890-1900, may be seen at a glance from the Official Statistics where the total output for 1900 is given as 601,000,000 poods, about 9,500,000 tons.

(Cf. _Petroleum_, No. 42, vol. ii. p. 13.)]

[1] Polo's contemporary, the Indian Poet Amir Khusru, puts in the mouth of his king Kaikobad a contemptuous gibe at the Mongols with their cotton-quilted dresses. (_Elliot_, III. p. 526.)

CHAPTER IV.

OF GEORGIANIA AND THE KINGS THEREOF.

In GEORGIANIA there is a King called David Melic, which is as much as to say "David King"; he is subject to the Tartar.[NOTE 1] In old times all the kings were born with the figure of an eagle upon the right shoulder.

The people are very handsome, capital archers, and most valiant soldiers.

They are Christians of the Greek Rite, and have a fas.h.i.+on of wearing their hair cropped, like Churchmen.[NOTE 2]

This is the country beyond which Alexander could not pa.s.s when he wished to penetrate to the region of the Ponent, because that the defile was so narrow and perilous, the sea lying on the one hand, and on the other lofty mountains impa.s.sable to hors.e.m.e.n. The strait extends like this for four leagues, and a handful of people might hold it against all the world.

Alexander caused a very strong tower to be built there, to prevent the people beyond from pa.s.sing to attack him, and this got the name of the IRON GATE. This is the place that the Book of Alexander speaks of, when it tells us how he shut up the Tartars between two mountains; not that they were really Tartars, however, for there were no Tartars in those days, but they consisted of a race of people called COMANIANS and many besides.[NOTE 3]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mediaeval Georgian Fortress, from a drawing dated 1634. "La provence est tonte plene de grant montagne et d'estroit pas et de fort"]

[In this province all the forests are of box-wood.[NOTE 4]] There are numerous towns and villages, and silk is produced in great abundance. They also weave cloths of gold, and all kinds of very fine silk stuffs. The country produces the best goshawks in the world [which are called _Avigi_].[NOTE 5] It has indeed no lack of anything, and the people live by trade and handicrafts. 'Tis a very mountainous region, and full of strait defiles and of fortresses, insomuch that the Tartars have never been able to subdue it out and out.

There is in this country a certain Convent of Nuns called St. Leonard's, about which I have to tell you a very wonderful circ.u.mstance. Near the church in question there is a great lake at the foot of a mountain, and in this lake are found no fish, great or small, throughout the year till Lent come. On the first day of Lent they find in it the finest fish in the world, and great store too thereof; and these continue to be found till Easter Eve. After that they are found no more till Lent come round again; and so 'tis every year. 'Tis really a pa.s.sing great miracle![NOTE 6]

That sea whereof I spoke as coming so near the mountains is called the Sea of GHEL or GHELAN, and extends about 700 miles.[NOTE 7] It is twelve days'

journey distant from any other sea, and into it flows the great River Euphrates and many others, whilst it is surrounded by mountains. Of late the merchants of Genoa have begun to navigate this sea, carrying s.h.i.+ps across and launching them thereon. It is from the country on this sea also that the silk called _Gh.e.l.le_ is brought.[NOTE 8] [The said sea produces quant.i.ties of fish, especially sturgeon, at the river-mouths salmon, and other big kinds of fish.][NOTE 9]

NOTE 1.--Ramusio has: "One part of the said province is subject to the Tartar, and the other part, owing to its fortresses, remains subject to the King David." We give an ill.u.s.tration of one of these mediaeval Georgian fortresses, from a curious collection of MS. notices and drawings of Georgian subjects in the Munic.i.p.al Library at Palermo, executed by a certain P. Cristoforo di Castelli of that city, who was a Theatine missionary in Georgia, in the first half of the 17th century.

The G. T. says the King was _always_ called David. The Georgian Kings of the family of Bagratidae claimed descent from King David through a prince Shampath, said to have been sent north by Nebuchadnezzar; a descent which was usually a.s.serted in their public doc.u.ments. Timur in his Inst.i.tutes mentions a suit of armour given him by the King of Georgia as forged by the hand of the Psalmist King. David is a very frequent name in their royal lists. [The dynasty of the Bagratidae, which was founded in 786 by Ashod, and lasted until the annexation of Georgia by Russia on the 18th January, 1801, had nine reigning princes named David. During the second half of the 12th century the princes were: Dawith (David) IV. Narin (1247-1259), Dawith V. (1243-1272), Dimitri II. Thawdadebuli (1272-1289), Wakhtang II. (1289-1292), Dawith VI. (1292-1308).--H. C.] There were two princes of that name, David, who shared Georgia between them under the decision of the Great Kaan in 1246, and one of them, who survived to 1269, is probably meant here. The name of David was borne by the last t.i.tular King of Georgia, who ceded his rights to Russia in 1801. It is probable, however, as Marsden has suggested, that the statement about the King _always_ being called David arose in part out of some confusion with the t.i.tle of _Dadian_, which, according to Chardin (and also to P. di Castelli), was always a.s.sumed by the Princes of Mingrelia, or Colchis as the latter calls it. Chardin refers this t.i.tle to the Persian _Dad_, "equity." To a portrait of "Alexander, King of Iberia," or Georgia Proper, Castelli attaches the following inscription, giving apparently his official style: "With the sceptre of David, Crowned by Heaven, First King of the Orient and of the World, King of Israel," adding, "They say that he has on his shoulder a small mark of a cross, '_Factus est princ.i.p.atus super humerum ejus_,' and they add that he has all his ribs in one piece, and not divided." In another place he notes that when attending the King in illness his curiosity moved him strongly to ask if these things were true, but he thought better of it! (_Khanikoff; Jour. As._ IX. 370, XI.

291, etc.; _Tim. Inst.i.t._ p. 143; _Castelli_ MSS.)

[A descendant of these Princes was in St. Petersburg about 1870. He wore the Russian uniform, and bore the t.i.tle of Prince Bagration-Mukransky.]

NOTE 2.--This fas.h.i.+on of tonsure is mentioned by Barbaro and Chardin. The latter speaks strongly of the beauty of both s.e.xes, as does Della Valle, and most modern travellers concur.

NOTE 3.--This refers to the Pa.s.s of Derbend, apparently the Sarmatic Gates of Ptolemy, and _Claustra Caspiorum_ of Tacitus, known to the Arab geographers as the "Gate of Gates" (_Bab-ul-abwab_), but which is still called in Turkish _Demir-Kapi_, or the Iron Gate, and to the ancient Wall that runs from the Castle of Derbend along the ridges of Caucasus, called in the East _Sadd-i-Iskandar_, the Rampart of Alexander. Bayer thinks the wall was probably built originally by one of the Antiochi, and renewed by the Sa.s.sanian Kobad or his son Naos.h.i.+rwan. It is ascribed to the latter by Abulfeda; and according to Klaproth's extracts from the _Derbend Namah_, Naos.h.i.+rwan completed the fortress of Derbend in A.D. 542, whilst he and his father together had erected 360 towers upon the Caucasian Wall which extended to the Gate of the Alans (i.e. the Pa.s.s of Dariel). Mas'udi says that the wall extended for 40 parasangs over the steepest summits and deepest gorges. The Russians must have gained some knowledge as to the actual existence and extent of the remains of this great work, but I have not been able to meet with any modern information of a very precise kind.

According to a quotation from _Reinegg's Kaukasus_ (I. 120, a work which I have not been able to consult), the remains of defences can be traced for many miles, and are in some places as much as 120 feet high. M. Moynet indeed, in the _Tour du Monde_ (I. 122), states that he traced the wall to a distance of 27 versts (18 miles) from Derbend, but unfortunately, instead of describing remains of such high interest from his own observation, he cites a description written by Alex. Dumas, which he says is quite accurate.

["To the west of Narin-Kaleh, a fortress which from the top of a promontory rises above the city, the wall, strengthened from distance to distance by large towers, follows the ridge of the mountains, descends into the ravines, and ascends the slopes to take root on some remote peak.

If the natives were to be believed, this wall, which, however, no longer has any strategetical importance, had formerly its towers bristling upon the Caucasus chain from one sea to another; at least, this rampart did protect all the plains at the foot of the eastern Caucasus, since vestiges were found up to 30 kilometres from Derbend." (_Reclus, Asie russe_, p.

160.) It has belonged to Russia since 1813. The first European traveller who mentions it is Benjamin of Tudela.

Bretschneider (II. p. 117) observes: "Yule complains that he was not able to find any modern information regarding the famous Caucasian Wall which begins at Derbend. I may therefore observe that interesting details on the subject are found in Legkobytov's _Survey of the Russian Dominions beyond the Caucasus_ (in Russian), 1836, vol. iv. pp. 158-161, and in Dubois de Montpereux's _Voyage autour du Caucase_, 1840, vol. iv. pp. 291-298, from which I shall give here an abstract."

(He then proceeds to give an abstract, of which the following is a part:)

"The famous _Dagh bary_ (mountain wall) now begins at the village of _Djelgan_ 4 versts south-west of Derbend, but we know that as late as the beginning of the last century it could be traced down to the southern gate of the city. This ancient wall then stretches westward to the high mountains of Taba.s.seran (it seems the Tabarestan of Mas'udi).... Dubois de Montpereux enumerates the following sites of remains of the wall:--In the famous defile of _Dariel_, north-east of Kazbek. In the valley of the _a.s.sai_ river, near Wapila, about 35 versts north-east of Dariel. In the valley of the Kizil river, about 15 versts north-west of Kazbek. Farther west, in the valley of the _Fiag_ or _Pog_ river, between _Lacz_ and _Khilak_. From this place farther west about 25 versts, in the valley of the _Arredon_ river, in the district of _Valaghir_. Finally, the westernmost section of the Caucasian Wall has been preserved, which was evidently intended to shut up the maritime defile of _Gagry_, on the Black Sea."--H. C.]

There is another wall claiming the t.i.tle of _Sadd-i-Iskandar_ at the S.E.

angle of the Caspian. This has been particularly spoken of by Vambery, who followed its traces from S.W. to N.E. for upwards of 40 miles. (See his _Travels in C. Asia_, 54 seqq., and _Julius Braun_ in the _Ausland_, No.

22, of 1869.)

Yule (II. pp. 537-538) says, "To the same friendly correspondent [Professor Braun] I owe the following additional particulars on this interesting subject, extracted from _Eichwald, Periplus des Kasp. M._ I.

128.

"'At the point on the mountain, at the extremity of the fortress (of Derbend), where the double wall terminates, there begins a single wall constructed in the same style, only this no longer runs in a straight line, but accommodates itself to the contour of the hill, turning now to the north and now to the south. At first it is quite destroyed, and showed the most scanty vestiges, a few small heaps of stones or traces of towers, but all extending in a general bearing from east to west.... It is not till you get 4 versts from Derbend, in traversing the mountains, that you come upon a continuous wall. Thenceforward you can follow it over the successive ridges ... and through several villages chiefly occupied by the Tartar hill-people. The wall ... makes many windings, and every 3/4 verst it exhibits substantial towers like those of the city-wall, crested with loop-holes. Some of these are still in tolerably good condition; others have fallen, and with the wall itself have left but slight vestiges.'

"Eichwald altogether followed it up about 18 versts (12 miles) not venturing to proceed further. In later days this cannot have been difficult, but my kind correspondent had not been able to lay his hand on information.

[Ill.u.s.tration: View of Derbend

"Alexandre ne poit paser quand il vost aler au Ponent ... car de l'un les est la mer, et de l'autre est gran montagne que ne se poent cavaucher. La vre est mout estroit entre la montagne et la mer."]

"A letter from Mr. Eugene Schuyler communicates some notes regarding inscriptions that have been found at and near Derbend, embracing Cufic of A.D. 465, Pehlvi, and even Cuneiform. Alluding to the fact that the other _Iron-gate_, south of Shahrsabz, was called also _Kalugah_, or _Kohlugah_ he adds: 'I don't know what that means, nor do I know if the Russian Kaluga, south-west of Moscow, has anything to do with it, but I am told there is a Russian popular song, of which two lines run:

'"Ah Derbend, Derbend Kaluga, Derbend my little Treasure!"'

"I may observe that I have seen it lately pointed out that _Koluga_ is a Mongol word signifying a _barrier_; and I see that Timkowski (I. 288) gives the same explanation of _Kalgan_, the name applied by Mongols and Russians to the gate in the Great Wall, called Chang-kia-Kau by the Chinese, leading to Kiakhta."

The story alluded to by Polo is found in the mediaeval romances of Alexander, and in the Pseudo-Callisthenes on which they are founded. The hero chases a number of impure cannibal nations within a mountain barrier, and prays that they may be shut up therein. The mountains draw together within a few cubits, and Alexander then builds up the gorge and closes it with gates of bra.s.s or iron. There were in all twenty-two nations with their kings, and the names of the nations were Goth, Magoth, Anugi, Eges, Exenach, etc. G.o.dfrey of Viterbo speaks of them in his rhyming verses:--

"Finibus Indorum species fuit una virorum; Goth erat atque Magoth dictum cognomen eorum * * * * *

Narrat Esias, Isidorus et Apocalypsis, Tangit et in t.i.tulis Magna Sibylla suis.

Patribus ipsorum tumulus fuit venter eorum," etc.

Among the questions that the Jews are said to have put, in order to test Mahommed's prophetic character, was one series: "Who are Gog and Magog?

Where do they dwell? What sort of rampart did Zu'lkarnain build between them and men?" And in the Koran we find (ch. xviii. _The Cavern_): "They will question thee, O Mahommed, regarding Zu'lkarnain. Reply: I will tell you his history"--and then follows the story of the erection of the Rampart of Yajuj and Majuj. In ch. xxi. again there is an allusion to their expected issue at the latter day. This last expectation was one of very old date. Thus the Cosmography of Aethicus, a work long believed (though erroneously) to have been abridged by St. Jerome, and therefore to be as old at least as the 4th century, says that the Turks of the race of Gog and Magog, a polluted nation, eating human flesh and feeding on all abominations, never was.h.i.+ng, and never using wine, salt, nor wheat, shall come forth in the Day of Antichrist from where they lie shut up behind the Caspian Gates, and make horrid devastation. No wonder that the irruption of the Tartars into Europe, heard of at first with almost as much astonishment as such an event would produce now, was connected with this prophetic legend![1] The Emperor Frederic II., writing to Henry III. of England, says of the Tartars: "'Tis said they are descended from the Ten Tribes who abandoned the Law of Moses, and wors.h.i.+pped the Golden Calf.

They are the people whom Alexander Magnus shut up in the Caspian Mountains."

[See the chapter _Gog et Magog dans le roman en alexandrins_, in Paul Meyer's _Alexandre le Grand dans la Litterature francaise_. Paris, 1886, II. pp. 386-389.--H. C.]:

"Gos et Margos i vienent de la tiere des Turs Et. cccc. m. hommes amenerent u plus, Il en jurent la mer dont sire est Neptunus Et le porte d'infier que garde Cerberus Que l'orguel d'Alixandre torneront a reus Por cou les enclot puis es estres desus.

Dusc' al tans Antecrist n'en istera mais nus."