Arrian, now called Ghes or Kenn, is singular among the islands of the Gulf as being wooded and well supplied with fresh water.  The ruins of a city [called Harira, according to Lord Curzon,] exist on the north side.  According to Wassaf, the island derived its name from one Kais, the son of a poor widow of Siraf (then a great port of Indian trade on the northern shore of the Gulf), who on a voyage to India, about the 10th century, made a fortune precisely as Dick Whittington did.  The proceeds of the cat were invested in an establishment on this island.  Modern attempts to nationalise Whittington may surely be given up!  It is one of the tales which, like Tell’s shot, the dog Gellert, and many others, are common to many regions. (Hammer’s Ilch. I. 239; Ouseley’s Travels, I. 170; Notes and Queries, 2nd s.  XI. 372.)

Mr. Badger, in a postscript to his translation of the History of Oman (Hak.  Soc. 1871), maintains that Kish or Kais was at this time a city on the mainland, and identical from Siraf.  He refers to Ibn Batuta (II. 244), who certainly does speak of visiting “the city of Kais, called also Siraf.”  And Polo, neither here nor in Bk.  III. ch. xl., speaks of Kisi as an island.  I am inclined, however, to think that this was from not having visited it.  Ibn Batuta says nothing of Siraf as a seat of trade; but the historian Wassaf, who had been in the service of Jamaluddin al-Thaibi, the Lord of Kais, in speaking of the export of horses thence to India, calls it “the Island of Kais.” (Elliot, III. 34.) Compare allusions to this horse trade in ch. xv. and in Bk.  III. ch. xvii.  Wassaf was precisely a contemporary of Polo.

NOTE 3.—­The name is Bascra in the MSS., but this is almost certainly the common error of c for t.  BASRA is still noted for its vast date-groves.  “The whole country from the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris to the sea, a distance of 30 leagues, is covered with these trees.” (Tav. Bk.  II. ch. iii.)

NOTE 4.—­From Baudas, or Baldac, i.e.  Baghdad, certain of these rich silk and gold brocades were called Baldachini, or in English Baudekins.  From their use in the state canopies and umbrellas of Italian dignitaries, the word Baldacchino has come to mean a canopy, even when architectural. [Baldekino, baldacchino, was at first entirely made of silk, but afterwards silk was mixed (sericum mixtum) with cotton or thread.  When Hulaku conquered Baghdad part of the tribute was to be paid with that kind of stuff.  Later on, says Heyd (II. p. 697), it was also manufactured in the province of Ahwaz, at Damas and at Cyprus; it was carried as far as France and England.  Among the articles sent from Baghdad to Okkodai Khan, mentioned in the Yuean ch’ao pi shi (made in the 14th century), quoted by Bretschneider (Med.  Res. II. p. 124), we note:  Nakhut (a kind of gold brocade), Nachidut (a silk stuff interwoven