CHAP. III.

TRAVELS OF IBN BATUTA CONTINUED.

IBN BATUTA RETURNS TO TATARY. PROCEEDS TO CHORASM. SINGULAR CUSTOM. BOKHARA.ITS MOSQUE. -BALKH. HINDOO CUSH. THE FATHER OF THE SAINTS. THE AFGHANS. -SIND.RUINS NEAR LAHARI. MODE OF LEVYING TROOPS. -DEHLI. CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. IBN BATUTA APPOINTED JUDGE. EXPEDIENT TO RAISE MONEY.-NARROWLY ESCAPES BEING PUT TO DEATH. TURNS FAQUIR. CHOSEN AMBASSADOR TO CHINA.-NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE COURTS OF PEKIN AND DEHLI.-THE EMBASSAGE SETS OUT.-ATTACKED BY ROBBERS. IBN BATUTA TAKEN PRISONER. HIS SUFFER

INGS AND ESCAPE. CITY OF BARUN INFESTED BY YOGEES. THE GOFTARS.-ORDEALS IN INDIA.-JOURNEY TO CALICUT.CHINESE JUNKS. IMPERIAL TREASURES LOST BY SHIPWRECK.

ASCENDS

IBN BATUTA GOES TO THE MALDIVES. IS MADE JUDGE. MARRIES THREE WIVES. PROCEEDS TO CEYLON. ADAM'S PEAK.—KING OF THE MONKEYS.—EMBARKS AT COULAN. -CAPTURED BY PIRATES. RETURNS TO THE MALDIVES, VISITS BENGAL, SUMATRA, TAWALISI. ARRIVES IN CHINA. PAPER MONEY. - GOG AND MAGOG. EL KHANSA. TATAR FUNERAL. RETURNS TO PERSIA.-MECCA.-REVISITS Tangier. TRAVELS IN SPAIN. PROCEEDS TO SOUDAN. THAGARI. --ABU LATIN.-MALI.-THE NIGER.-HIPPOPOTAMI. CANNIBALS. TIMBUCTOO. KAKAW.-BARDAMA. NAKDA.-RETURNS, AND TAKES UP HIS RESIDENCE IN FEZ.

AFTER a stay of one month and six days in Constantinople, Ibn Batuta returned to Astrachan, where he remained a little time. Leaving Tatary he now pursued his journey into Khavaresm or Chorasm, through a desert ill supplied with herbage or water. But in this part of his narrative there is such a deficiency of detail, either from the haste of the traveller himself, or the fault of his abbreviator, that no interest can be found in tracing his route, except that which is excited by his indefatigable love of locomotion. Chorasm was a populous city, and appeared to him to be the largest in the possession of the Turks. The people were polite and hospitable. One singular custom, however, prevailed

among them; those who absented themselves from public worship were flogged by the priest in presence of the congregation, and fined, moreover, in a sum of five dinars. A whip was hung up in every mosque for the punishment of the neglectful. This custom is still retained in Bokhara, where the people are driven to worship with the whip. The most numerous sect in Chorasm were the Schismatics, or those who rejected predestination; but they did not care to spread abroad their heresy.

From Chorasm, Batuta went to Bokhara, which he found but imperfectly restored from the desolation poured upon it by Jengis Khan. He proceeded next to Samarcand, a rich and beautiful city, sanctified, in the devout theologian's eyes, by the tombs of numerous saints which it contained. Crossing the Gihon, he entered Khorasan, and travelling a day and night, through a desert without a habitation, arrived at Balkh, once a great city, but now in ruins. Jengis Khan had so totally destroyed it, that though the site of the town was evident enough, it was impossible to trace the arrangement of its buildings. The mosque, the Mahometan affirms, was one of the greatest in the world; its pillars were incomparable. But these were destroyed

by the barbarian conqueror, in consequence of a popular belief, that a great treasure was buried beneath them for the repair of the edifice.

From Balkh, the journey lay for seven days through the mountains of Kuhistan. This hilly country was thickly strewed with villages. Ibn Batuta came next to Herat, the largest city in Khorasan after the ravages of Jengis Khan. Thence to Barwan; "in the road to which is a high mountain covered with snow, called Hindoo Cush," that is, as our author whimsically translates it," the Hindoo slayer, because most of the slaves brought thither from India die from the intenseness of the cold." In the mountain called Bashai was a cell inhabited by an old man, called Ata Evlia, that is, the Father of the Saints. He was said to be three hundred To Batuta, indeed, he did not ap

and fifty years old.

pear to be above fifty. He said that every hundredth year he had a new growth of hair and teeth, and that he had been once the Rajah Aba Rahim Ratan of India, who had been buried at Multan, in the province of Sindia. These tales and reveries, however, found little to encourage them in the superstition of the Musulman, who proved rather sceptical on this occasion: he wanted the boldness of Hindoo credulity.

- Candahar and Cabul were both in a ruined state when visited by our traveller. "This last is inhabited," he says, by a people from Persia, whom they call Afghans." His testimony here, with respect to the descent of this people, is of some importance. The Afghans themselves pretend that they are descended from the Jews; and although all that is known in Europe respecting their language contradicts their assertion, yet there are learned Orientalists who are still willing to submit to the authority of the Afghan histories. These histories, however, have so little of intrinsic merit, and are of so modern a date, that the asseveration of a well-informed Oriental traveller of the fourteenth century preponderates against them. Batuta describes them as a violent and powerful people, exercising, in general, the profession of highway robbery.

Our indefatigable traveller now embarked on the Sind, which he calls the greatest river in the world, and descended to Lahari (perhaps Larry Bunder), a town situated at its mouth. At the distance of a few miles from this city were the ruins of another, in which stones in the shape of men and beasts, almost innumerable, were to be found. It was the general opinion of the country, that a great city formerly stood there, but that the inhabitants of it became so utterly lost to all piety and virtue, that God transformed them, their beasts, their herbs, and even their very seeds, into stones. He travelled next to Multan, the capital of Sindia, where he witnessed the Indian mode of levying soldiers.

On the day of the levy or review, the emir had a number of bows of various sizes placed before him, and

when any one offered himself to enlist as a bowman, he was obliged to draw one of these bows with all his might; a rank was then assigned him proportioned to his strength. In like manner those who presented themselves as horsemen ran their horses at full speed towards a drum which was suspended as a mark, and according to the effect done by their spears was their place decided.

Dehli he describes as the greatest city of Islamism in the East, combining at once both beauty and strength : it was composed, indeed, of four cities, which becoming contiguous, formed one; yet he observes that the greatest city in the world had the fewest inhabitants. Dehli, when he entered it, was a desert: the inhabitants had fled from their houses to escape the cruelty of the emperor, nor could the encouragement which was held out to new settlers restore its population.

This terrific ruler was the emperor Mohammed, son of Ghiath Oddin Toglik, descended of the Turks who were settled in the mountains of Sindia. "This em

peror," according to our author, was one of the most bountiful and splendidly munificent men where he took, but in other cases one of the most impetuous and inexorable, and very seldom indeed did it happen that pardon followed his anger." This was a dangerous kind of patron to approach; but the learned theologian, Ibn Batuta, was received with singular favour, reaped the benefits of the emperor's generosity, and fortunately escaped from his displeasure. When he was called in to the imperial presence, and had done homage, the vizier said to him, The lord of the world appoints you to the office of judge in Dehli ; he gives you, at the same time, a dress of honour, with a saddled horse and also twelve thousand dinars for your present support; he has, moreover, appointed you a yearly salary of twelve thousand dinars, and a portion of lands in the villages which will produce annually an equal sum.' The traveller, on receiving this unexpected appointment, did homage according to custom, and withdrew. But the

emperor's munificence did not stop here. The newlyappointed judge of Dehli received another present of twelve thousand dinars, and a cell, or endowed mansion, was likewise placed at his command. Yet so great were the expenses incurred by his following the court in the expeditions of the emperor, that he shortly found himself involved in debts to the amount of fifty-five thousand dinars. This embarrassment he contrived to get rid of by an Oriental artifice. "About this time,” "I composed in Arabic a panegyric in praise of the emperor, and read it to him. He translated it for himself, and was wonderfully pleased with it; for the Indians are fond of Arabian poetry, and are very glad to be recorded in it. I then informed him of the debt I had incurred, which he ordered to be discharged from his own treasury, and added, Take care in future not to exceed the extent of your income." "

he says,

6

Shortly after this, our traveller and judge experienced the anxiety of depending on the patronage of a capricious tyrant. A sheikh who had been honoured with the confidence of the emperor, for some unknown cause, had incurred his displeasure; enquiries were then made as to those who had kept company with the obnoxious individual. The judge Ibn Batuta was among the number informed against. For four days together the accused attended at the gate of the palace, while a council within sat deliberating on their fate. This was a painful situation for our judge, who had seen the victims of the emperor's suspicion shot from balistæ, and trodden upon by elephants whose feet were cased with knives. He betook himself, however, to continued fasting, and tasted nothing but water. On the first day he repeated the sentence, "God is our support, and the most excellent patron," three-and-thirty thousand times, and after the fourth day he was delivered; but the sheikh and all the others who had visited him were put to death.

Terror-struck at this stern act of despotism, Ibn Batuta resigned the office of judge, gave all he possessed to the faquirs, and putting on the tunic of that order,