such as are preserved in the Puranas, and in Pliny’s extracts from Megasthenes, are, in the main, lists of peoples, not of provinces, and even where the real name seems to be local a gentile form is often given.  So also Tochari and Sogdi are replaced by Tokharistan and Sughd; the Veneti and Taurini by Venice and Turin; the Remi and the Parisii, by Rheims and Paris; East-Saxons and South-Saxons by Essex and Sussex; not to mention the countless _-ings_ that mark the tribal settlement of the Saxons in Britain.

Abulfeda, speaking of this territory, uses exactly Polo’s phrase, saying that the districts in question are properly called Kil-o-Kilan, but by the Arabs Jil-o-Jilan.  Teixeira gives the Persian name of the sea as Darya Ghilani. (See Abulf. in Buesching, v. 329.)

[The province of Gil (Gilan), which is situated between the mountains and the Caspian Sea, and between the provinces of Azerbaijan and Mazanderan (H.  C.)], gave name to the silk for which it was and is still famous, mentioned as Ghelle (Gili) at the end of this chapter.  This Seta Ghella is mentioned also by Pegolotti (pp. 212, 238, 301), and by Uzzano, with an odd transposition, as Seta Leggi, along with Seta Masandroni, i.e. from the adjoining province of Mazanderan (p. 192).  May not the Spanish Geliz, “a silk-dealer,” which seems to have been a puzzle to etymologists, be connected with this? (See Dosy and Engelmann, 2nd ed. p. 275.) [Prof.  F. de Filippi (Viaggo in Persia nel 1862,...  Milan, 1865, 8vo) speaks of the silk industry of Ghilan (pp. 295-296) as the principal product of the entire province.—­H.  C]

The dimensions assigned to the Caspian in the text would be very correct if length were meant, but the Geog.  Text with the same figure specifies circuit (zire).  Ramusio again has “a circuit of 2800 miles.”  Possibly the original reading was 2700; but this would be in excess.

NOTE 8.—­The Caspian is termed by Vincent of Beauvais Mare Seruanicum, the Sea of Shirwan, another of its numerous Oriental names, rendered by Marino Sanuto as Mare Salvanicum. (III. xi. ch. ix.) But it was generally known to the Franks in the Middle Ages as the SEA OF BACU.  Thus Berni:—­

  “Fuor del deserto la diritta strada
  Lungo il Mar di Bacu miglior pareva.”
      (Orl.  Innam. xvii. 60.)

And in the Sfera of Lionardo Dati (circa 1390):—­

  “Da Tramontana di quest’ Asia Grande
  Tartari son sotto la fredda Zona,
  Gente bestial di bestie e vivande,
  Fin dove l’Onda di Baccu risuona,” etc. (p. 10.)

This name is introduced in Ramusio, but probably by interpolation, as well as the correction of the statement regarding Euphrates, which is perhaps a branch of the notion alluded to in Prologue, ch. ii. note 5.  In a later chapter Marco calls it the Sea of Sarai, a title also given in the Carta Catalana. [Odorico calls it Sea of Bacuc (Cathay) and Sea of Bascon (Cordier).  The latter name is a corruption of Abeskun, a small town and island in the S.E. corner of the Caspian Sea, not far from Ashurada.—­H.  C.]