he quotes did not belong to the vernacular of the countries which he is describing, a mistake of which we have seen analogous instances already in Marignolli's account of Ceylon. Thus, in relating the circumstances of a suttee which he witnessed on his way from. Dehli to the coast, after eight years' residence in Hindustan, he makes the victim address her conductors in Persian, quoting the words in that language as actually used by her, these being no doubt the interpretation which was given him by a bystander.' There are many like instances in the course of the work, as, when he tells us that an ingot of gold was called, in China, barkâlah ; that watchmen were there called baswcindn,' and so forth, all the terms used being Persian. Generally, perhaps, his explanations of foreign terms are inaccurate ; he has got hold of some idea connected with the word, but not the real one. Thus, in explaining the name of .114j-Tarkhdn (Astracan) he tells us that the word Tarkhdn, among the Turks, signified a place exempt from all taxes, whereas it was the title of certain privileged persons, who, among other peculiar rights, enjoyed exemption from taxes.2 Again, he tells us that the palace of the Khans at Sarai was called Alban-Thdsh, or " Golden Head ; " but it is Bdsh, not Thdsh, that signifies head in Turkish, and the meaning of the name he gives is Golden Stone.3
There are some remarkable chronological difficulties in his narrative, but for most of these I must refer to the French editors,
I The story is related on his first entrance into Hindustan apropos of another suttee which then occurred. But he states the circumstance to have happened at a later date when he was at the town of Amjeri, and I suppose this to have been the town of Amjhera near Dhar, which he probably passed through on his way from Dhar to Dautalabad in 1342 (iii, 137).
2 Tarkhan is supposed to be the title intended by the Tiarxanthus of the Byzantine Embassy of Valentine (see note near end of Ibn Batuta's narrative, infra) .
3 See remark by Tr., ii, 448. Ibn Batuta tells us that it was the custom in India for a creditor of a courtier who would not pay his debts to watch at the palace gate for his debtor, and there assail him with cries of " Daruhai Us-Sultan ! O enemy of the Sultan ! thou shalt not enter till thou bast paid." But it is probable that the exclamation really was that still so well known in India from any individual who considers himself injured, "Duhai.Maharâj ! Duhai Company Bahâdur !" Justice ! Justice !
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