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CHAP. XVIII. TIIE CARAUNAS AND MAGICAL DARKNESS

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sites, Diláwar-Dárápúr on the west bank, and Mung on the east, are identified by General Cunningham (I believe justly) with Alexander's Bucephala and Nicaea. The

spot, which is just opposite the battlefield of Chiliánwála, was visited ( 15th December, i 868) at my request, by my friend Colonel R. Maclagan, R.E. He writes : " The present village of Diláwar stands a little above the town of Dárápúr (I mean on higher ground), looking down on Dárápúr and on the river, and on the cultivated and wooded plain along the river bank. The remains of the Old Diláwar, in the form of quantities of large bricks, cover the low round-backed spurs and knolls of the broken rocky hills around the present village, but principally on the land side. They cover a large area of very irregular character, and may clearly be held to represent a very

considerable town. There are no indications of the form of buildings, . . . . but simply large quantities of large bricks, which for a long time have been carried away

and used for modern buildings    After rain coins are found on the surface   

There can be no doubt of a very large extent of ground, of very irregular and uninviting character, having been covered at some time with buildings. The position on the

Jelam would answer well for the Diláwar which the Mongol invaders took and held.

. . . . The strange thing is that the name should not be mentioned (I believe it is not) by any of the well-known Mahomedan historians of India. So much for

Diláwar    The people have no traditions. But there are the remains ; and

there is the name, borne by the existing village on part of the old site." I had come to the conclusion that this was almost certainly Polo's Dalivar, and had mapped it as

such, before I read certain passages in the History of Zíyáuddín Barni, which have

been translated by Professor Dowson for the third volume of Elliot's India. When the comrades of Ghaiassuddin Balban urged him to conquests, the Sultan pointed to

the constant danger from the Mongols,* saying : " These accursed wretches have

heard of the wealth and condition of Hindustan, and have set their hearts upon conquering and plundering it. They have taken and plundered Lahor within my terri-

tories, and no year passes that they do not come here and plunder the villages   

They even talk about the conquest and sack of Delhi." And under a later date the historian says : " The Sultan . . . . marched to Lahor, and ordered the rebuilding

of the fort which the Mughals had destroyed in the reigns of the sons of Shamsuddin. The towns and villages of Labor which the Mughals had devastated and laid waste he repeopled." Considering these passages, and the fact that Polo had no personal knowledge of Upper India, I now think it probable that Marsden was right, and that Dalivar is really a misunderstanding of " Cittâ di Livar" for Laliáwar or Lahore.

The Magical darkness which Marco ascribes to the evil arts of the Karaunas is explained by Khanikoff from the phenomenon of Dry Fog, which he has often ex-

perienced in Khorasayn, combined with the Dust Storm with which we are familiar

in Upper India. In Sind these phenomena often produce a great degree of darkness. During a battle fought between the armies of Sindh and Kachh in 1762, such a fog

came on, obscuring the light of day for some six hours, during which the armies were intermixed with one another and fighting desperately. When the darkness dispersed they separated, and the consternation of both parties was so great at the events of the day that both made a precipitate retreat. In 1844 this battle was still spoken of with wonder. (j. Bomb. Br. R. A. S. I. 423.)

Major St. John has given a note on his own experience of these curious Kermán fogs (see Ocean Highways, 1872, p. 286) : " Not a breath of air was stirring, and the

whole effect was most curious, and utterly unlike any other fog I have seen. No deposit of dust followed, and the feeling of the .air was decidedly damp. I unfortunately could not get my hygrometer till the fog had cleared away."

[ General Houtum-Schindler, l.c. p. 493, writes : " The magical darkness might, as Colonel Yule supposes, be explained by the curious dry fogs or dust storms, often occurring in the neighbourhood of Kermán, but it must be remarked that Marco Polo

* Profes,or Cowell compares the Mongol inroads in the latter part of the 13th and beginnbg of the

14th century, in their incessant recurrence, to the incursions of the Danes in England. A passage in Wassáf (Elliot, III. 38) shows that the Mongols were, circa 1254-55, already in occupation of Sodra on the Chenab, and districts adjoining.

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