(vol. i. p. 254). It surpasses, we think, the bounds of true criticism to connect the Semitic argavan, purple' (Hebrew, 1, and the same word occurs in Assyrian), with Turkí and Thibetan forms; but there are, we admit, strong grounds for regarding the modern Tungúns as the descendants of the Mongolian Argons. As far as historical traditions can be trusted, everything points to the deportation in the eighth and ninth centuries from the neighbourhood of Kashgar of the large Tagazgaz' tribe of Ouigours, who at that time were partly Manichæans and partly Christians, to the Chinese frontier, as the origin of the Tungún race; but with respect to the name, among the many derivations that have been given, the most plausible would seem to be the compound Chinese term Tun-jen or military people,' which was applied to these Mohammedan colonists, settled on the Tun-tien or 'military lands' of the western frontier. The only other criticism that we venture to make is that the Organa of Nearchus, contiguous to Oaracta or Vract (modern Kishm), is not the Jirún of the Arabs, as Colonel Yule suggests (vol. i. p. 108), but more probably the Island of Angan, formerly Argan, our present chief telegraph station in the Persian Gulf, although Dr. Vincent, in his Periplus of the Erythræan Sea, prefers to identify Organa with Larrak, an island in the immediate vicinity.

It will be observed that we have only attempted as yet to pursue the travels of Marco Polo as far as the Chinese frontier. Each book of each volume of Colonel Yule's work requires in reality an article to itself. There is not the same high interest, perhaps, in tracing Marco's steps among the unfamiliar Mongolian provinces, or through the populous districts of China itself, which had but recently come under Kublai's rule, as in tracking him across the better-known regions of Central Asia; but Colonel Yule claims a special credit for his explanation of the geography of the route from Sindafu to Carajan upon the Burmese frontier, which Marco followed in one of his official tours, and the details, moreover, of the return voyage from the port of Zayton through the Eastern Archipelago and along the shores of India, are replete with interest; so that it is with real reluctance we find ourselves compelled by want of space to pass over these curious topics. It is not very easy to realise the position of the Poli at the Court of the Great Khán, for although Marco gossips at considerable length regarding the wonders of the various countries and cities which he visited, he is strangely reticent as to his own personal history and adventures. Colonel Yule, however, has been VÖL. CXXXV. NO. CCLXXV.

D

able to trace his steps through the districts of Shansi, Shensi, and Ssechuen to the remote province of Yun-nan, on the Burmese frontier, whither he was sent as Commissioner by the Emperor shortly after his arrival at Court. Somewhat later he is found in the Government of Yanju, near the sea-coast, one of the oldest and most famous of the great cities of China;' and there are also incidental notices of his being employed on missions in Tangut, and in Champa or Southern Cochin China, and perhaps also in the Indian Seas. When we remember, indeed, that Kublai Khán, besides being Lord Paramount of the whole empire of the Mongols as far west as Persia and the Volga, ruled with direct authority over all Central Asia, from Kashgár to the China Sea, and further claimed allegiance from Borneo, and Java, and Sumatra-his political relations even extending as far as Madagascar-we can understand what an unlimited field was open to the career of a young and ambitious politician like Marco Polo, who had won his way completely into the Emperor's confidence, thereby exciting to an almost dangerous degree the jealousy of the native courtiers. Marco must have enjoyed unusual facilities for amassing wealth, and no doubt he turned his opportunities to good account; for although nowhere in his notes dictated to Rustician does he make any boast of his riches, Ramusio has preserved a tradition of his return to Venice, which describes his exhibition to his astonished fellow-citizens of such a treasure of jewels and precious stones as had never before been seen even in that emporium of wealth; and the house moreover in which the family resided, was long known by the name of the Corte del Millione.'

Nothing in all Marco Polo's autobiography is of a more romantic character than the account he gives of the manner in which he ultimately succeeded in obtaining his dismissal from Kublai's Court. The Great Khán, like Theodore of Abyssinia, had become so attached to his Italian friends, and found their services, no doubt, of so much use to him, that he could not be persuaded to part with them. The Poli, on the other hand, having acquired great wealth in gold and jewels, desired, as Colonel Yule says, ' to carry their gear and their own grey heads safe home to the Lagoons.' They were aware that under ordinary circumstances travelling between the Volga and Cathay was as safe as, or even safer than, travelling in Europe; but in the event of the Khan's death--and he was now of a great age, having nearly reached his eightieth year-troubles were sure to arise, which for a time would put a stop to traffic altogether. While they were

anxiously considering their position, an embassy of three barons arrived from Kublai's great nephew, Arghun, who then ruled in Persia, representing that their master's favourite Mongolian wife having recently died, had desired to be succeeded by a lady of her own tribe and family from her native land of Cathay. A very beautiful and charming person, a maiden of seventeen, of the Bayaut tribe, who rejoiced in the name of Cocachin, was accordingly selected and handed over to the embassy to be escorted to Persia. And now Marco Polo's reputation stood him in good stead, for as the land journey through Central Asia was blocked in consequence of wars that had broken out among certain Tartar princes, and the ambassadors were thus obliged to return by sea, they decided to make a special application to the Emperor for the escort of the Poli family, knowing that all three had great knowledge and experience of the Indian Sea and of the countries by which they would have to pass, and especially Messer Marco.' Reluctantly the Great Khán consented, and accordingly, after seventeen years of continued sojourn in Mongolia, the Italians left for the West. So tardy was navigation in those days that the embassy consumed apparently twenty-six months in reaching the Persian Gulf from Zayton, a short distance to the north of Canton, the ships having remained in port for several months during two successive years-once at Sumatra and again on the Malabar coast-in order to avoid the perils of the monsoon. Ultimately, however, the party landed at Hurmuz, and as Arghun was now dead and his brother, Kaikhatu, reigned in his stead, it was arranged that the heir-presumptive, the young Prince Ghazan, should succeed to the lady's hand. Two of Arghun's ambassadors had died during the voyage, and a large proportion of the suite, but the Mongolian princess and her companion, the daughter of the King of Manzi, arrived safely in the Persian camp. There is something touching almost solemn-in the few words with which Marco closes his account of this singular drama.

'And those two great ladies who were thus entrusted to them they watched over and guarded as if they had been daughters of their own, until they had transferred them to the hands of their lord, whilst the ladies, young and fair as they were, looked on each of those three as a father, and obeyed them accordingly. Indeed, both Ghazan, who is now the reigning prince, and the queen, Cocachin, his wife, have such a regard for the envoys that there is nothing that they would not do for them. And when the three ambassadors took leave of that lady to return to their own country, she wept for sorrow at the parting.'

And now in bringing to a close our very inadequate notice

of Marco Polo and his remarkable career, we cannot do better than quote at length the full and nervous peroration in which Colonel Yule proudly summarises the achievements of his hero and claims for him a high place in the roll of fame.

'He was the first traveller to trace a route across the whole longitude of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after kingdom which he had seen with his own eyes; the deserts of Persia, the flowering plateau and wild gorges of Badakhshan; the jade-bearing rivers of Khotan; the Mongolian Steppes, cradle of the power that had so lately threatened to swallow up Christendom; the new and brilliant court that had been established at Cambaluc: the first traveller to reveal China in all its wealth and vastness, its mighty rivers, its huge cities, its rich manufactures, its swarming population, the inconceivably vast fleets that quickened its seas and its inland waters; to tell us of the nations on its borders, with all their eccentricities of manners and worship; of Thibet, with its sordid devotees; of Burma, with its golden pagodas, and their tinkling crowns; of Laos, of Siam, of Cochin China, of Japan, the Eastern Thule, with its rosy pearls and golden-roofed palaces; the first to speak of that museum of beauty and wonder still so imperfectly ransacked, the Indian Archipelago, source of those aromatics then so highly prized, and whose origin was so dark; of Java, the pearl of islands; of Sumatra, with its many kings, its strange costly products, and its cannibal races; of the naked savages of Nicobar and Andaman; of Ceylon, the isle of gems, with its sacred mountain and its tomb of Adam; of India the Great, not as a dreamland of Alexandrian fables, but as a country seen and partially explored, with its virtuous Brahmins, its obscene ascetics, its diamonds, and the strange tales of their acquisition, its sea beds of pearls, and its powerful sun; the first in medieval times to give any distinct account of the secluded Christian empire of Abyssinia, and the semi-Christian island of Socotra; to speak, though indeed dimly, of Zanzibar, with its negroes and its ivory, and of the vast and distant Madagascar, bordering on the dark ocean of the South, with its Ruc and other monstrosities; and in a remotely opposite region, of Siberia and the Arctic Ocean, of dog-sledges, white bears, and rein-deer-riding Tunguses.'

ART. II.--1. A History of Lace. By Mrs. BURY PALLISER. 2nd edition. London: 1870.

2. Catalogue of a Collection of Lace and Needlework, with a list of books on the same subject, both formed by and in the possession of Mrs. Hailstone, of Horton Hall, and exhibited at Leeds. Privately printed: 1868.

3. Designs for Lace-making. By S. H. LILLA HAILSTONE. London: 1870. Printed for private distribution.

4. Origine ed uso delle Trine a filo di refe. Genova: 1864. Privately printed for the Costabili-Caselli nuptials.

5. Handbook of Greek Lace-making. By J. H. 2nd edition. Printed for private circulation. London: 1870.

6. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Lace and Embroidery in the South Kensington Museum. By Mrs. BURY PALLISER. London: 1870.

7. Textile Fabrics: a Descriptive Catalogue of the Church Vestments, Silks, Stuff's, Needlework, and Tapestries, forming that section of the South Kensington Museum. By the Very Rev. DANIEL Rock, D.D.: 1870.

8. Official Reports of the Various Sections of the Exhibition: Fine Arts Division. Part IV. London: 1871.

9. Report on Educational Works and Appliances in the Indian Department of the London International Exhibition, 1871. By GEORGE SMITH, Esq., LL.D. Edinburgh. London: 1871.

10. The Lace-makers. By Mrs. MEREDITH. London: 1865. 11. Les Guipures d'Art. Par Mme. GOUBAUD. London:

1869.

12. Pillow Lace. By Mde. GOUBAUD. London: 1871. 13. A History of Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufactures. By WILLIAM FELKIN. London: 1867.

14. Katalog der im Germanischen Museum befindlichen Gewebe und Stickereien, Nadelarbeiten und Spitzen, aus alterer Zeit. Nürnberg: 1869.

THERE used to be an old saying, that of the smallest matters the law does not take care,' but to the art of lace-making that axiom certainly can no longer be applied, since every year now gives us one or more works on the history, or on the reproduction of Lace.

Books on both these topics stand at the head of our article: