The brocades wrought with figures of animals in gold, of which Marco speaks, are still a specialite at Benares, where they are known by the name of Shikargah or hunting-grounds, which is nearly a translation of the name Thard-wahsh “beast-hunts,” by which they were known to the mediaeval Saracens. (See Q.  Makrizi, IV. 69-70.) Plautus speaks of such patterns in carpets, the produce of Alexandria—­“Alexandrina belluata conchyliata tapetia.”  Athenaeus speaks of Persian carpets of like description at an extravagant entertainment given by Antiochus Epiphanes; and the same author cites a banquet given in Persia by Alexander, at which there figured costly curtains embroidered with animals.  In the 4th century Asterius, Bishop of Amasia in Pontus, rebukes the Christians who indulge in such attire:  “You find upon them lions, panthers, bears, huntsmen, woods, and rocks; whilst the more devout display Christ and His disciples, with the stories of His miracles,” etc.  And Sidonius alludes to upholstery of like character: 

  “Peregrina det supellex
       * * *
  Ubi torvus, et per artem
  Resupina flexus ora,
  It equo reditque telo
  Simulacra bestiarum
  Fugiens fugansque Parthus.” (Epist. ix. 13.)

A modern Kashmir example of such work is shown under ch. xvii.

(D’Avezac, p. 524; Pegolotti, in Cathay, 295, 306; I.  B. II. 309, 388, 422; III. 81; Della Decima, IV. 125-126; Fr.-Michel, Recherches, etc., II. 10-16, 204-206; Joseph.  Bell.  Jud. VII. 5, 5, and V. 5, 4; Pliny, VIII. 74 (or 48); Plautus, Pseudolus, I. 2; Yonge’s Athenaeus, V. 26 and XII. 54; Mongez in Mem.  Acad. IV. 275-276.)

NOTE 5.—­[Bretschneider (Med.  Res. I. p. 114) says:  “Hulagu left Karakorum, the residence of his brother, on the 2nd May, 1253, and returned to his ordo, in order to organize his army.  On the 19th October of the same year, all being ready, he started for the west.”  He arrived at Samarkand in September, 1255.  For this chapter and the following of Polo, see:  Hulagu’s Expedition to Western Asia, after the Mohammedan Authors, pp. 112-122, and the Translation of the Si Shi Ki (Ch’ang Te), pp. 122-156, in Bretschneider’s Mediaeval Researches, I.—­H.  C.]

NOTE 6.—­["Hulagu proceeded to the lake of Ormia (Urmia), when he ordered a castle to be built on the island of Tala, in the middle of the lake, for the purpose of depositing here the immense treasures captured at Baghdad.  A great part of the booty, however, had been sent to Mangu Khan.” (Hulagu’s Exp., Bretschneider, Med.  Res. I. p. 120.) Ch’ang Te says (Si Shi Ki, p. 139):  “The palace of the Ha-li-fa was built of fragrant and precious woods.  The walls of it were constructed of black and white jade.  It is impossible to imagine the quantity of gold and precious stones found there.”—­H.  C.]