In this country of Persia there is a great supply of fine horses; and people take them to India for sale, for they are horses of great price, a single one being worth as much of their money as is equal to 200 livres Tournois; some will be more, some less, according to the quality.[NOTE 2] Here also are the finest asses in the world, one of them being worth full 30 marks of silver, for they are very large and fast, and acquire a capital amble.  Dealers carry their horses to Kisi and Curmosa, two cities on the shores of the Sea of India, and there they meet with merchants who take the horses on to India for sale.

In this country there are many cruel and murderous people, so that no day passes but there is some homicide among them.  Were it not for the Government, which is that of the Tartars of the Levant, they would do great mischief to merchants; and indeed, maugre the Government, they often succeed in doing such mischief.  Unless merchants be well armed they run the risk of being murdered, or at least robbed of everything; and it sometimes happens that a whole party perishes in this way when not on their guard.  The people are all Saracens, i.e. followers of the Law of Mahommet.[NOTE 3]

In the cities there are traders and artizans who live by their labour and crafts, weaving cloths of gold, and silk stuffs of sundry kinds.  They have plenty of cotton produced in the country; and abundance of wheat, barley, millet, panick, and wine, with fruits of all kinds.

[Some one may say, “But the Saracens don’t drink wine, which is prohibited by their law.”  The answer is that they gloss their text in this way, that if the wine be boiled, so that a part is dissipated and the rest becomes sweet, they may drink without breach of the commandment; for it is then no longer called wine, the name being changed with the change of flavour.[NOTE 4]]

NOTE 1.—­The following appear to be Polo’s Eight Kingdoms:—­

I. KAZVIN; then a flourishing city, though I know not why he calls it a kingdom.  Persian ’Irak, or the northern portion thereof, seems intended.  Previous to Hulaku’s invasion Kazvin seems to have been in the hands of the Ismailites or Assassins.

II.  KURDISTAN.  I do not understand the difficulties of Marsden, followed by Lazari and Pauthier, which lead them to put forth that Kurdistan is not Kurdistan but something else.  The boundaries of Kurdistan according to Hamd Allah were Arabian ’Irak, Khuzistan, Persian ’Irak, Azerbaijan and Diarbekr. (Dict. de la P. 480.) [Cf.  Curzon, Persia pass.—­H.  C.] Persian Kurdistan, in modern as in mediaeval times, extends south beyond Kermanshah to the immediate border of Polo’s next kingdom, viz.: