["White oxen, with short thick horns and a round hump between the shoulders, are now very rare between Kerman and Bender ’Abbas.  They are, however, still to be found towards Beluchistan and Mekran, and they kneel to be loaded like camels.  The sheep which I saw had fine large tails; I did not, however, hear of any having so high a weight as thirty pounds.” (Houtum-Schindler, l.c. p. 493.)—­H.  C.]

The fat-tailed sheep is well known in many parts of Asia and part of Africa.  It is mentioned by Ctesias, and by Aelian, who says the shepherds used to extract the tallow from the live animal, sewing up the tail again; exactly the same story is told by the Chinese Pliny, Ma Twan-lin.  Marco’s statements as to size do not surpass those of the admirable Kampfer:  “In size they so much surpass the common sheep that it is not unusual to see them as tall as a donkey, whilst all are much more than three feet; and as to the tail I shall not exceed the truth, though I may exceed belief, if I say that it sometimes reaches 40 lbs. in weight.”  Captain Hutton was assured by an Afghan sheep-master that tails had occurred in his flocks weighing 12 Tabriz mans, upwards of 76 lbs.!  The Afghans use the fat as an aperient, swallowing a dose of 4 to 6 lbs!  Captain Hutton’s friend testified that trucks to bear the sheep-tails were sometimes used among the Taimunis (north of Herat).  This may help to locate that ancient and slippery story.  Josafat Barbaro says he had seen the thing, but is vague as to place. (Aelian Nat.  An. III. 3, IV. 32; Amoen.  Exoticae; Ferrier, H. of Afghans, p. 294; J.  A. S. B. XV. 160.)

[Rabelais says (Bk.  I. ch. xvi.):  “Si de ce vous efmerveillez, efmerveillez vous d’advantage de la queue des beliers de la Scythie, qui pesait plus de trente livres; et des moutons de Surie, esquels fault (si Tenaud, dict vray) affuster une charrette au cul, pour la porter tant qu’elle est longue et pesante.” (See G. Capus, A travers le roy. de Tamerlan, pp. 21-23, on the fat sheep.)—­H.  C.]

NOTE 3.—­The word rendered banditti is in Pauthier Carans, in G. Text Caraunes, in the Latin “a scaranis et malandrinis.”  The last is no doubt correct, standing for the old Italian Scherani, bandits. (See Cathay, p. 287, note.)

NOTE 4.—­This is a knotty subject, and needs a long note.

The KARAUNAHS are mentioned often in the histories of the Mongol regime in Persia, first as a Mongol tribe forming a Tuman, i.e. a division or corps of 10,000 in the Mongol army (and I suspect it was the phrase the Tuman of the Karaunahs in Marco’s mind that suggested his repeated use of the number 10,000 in speaking of them); and afterwards as daring and savage freebooters, scouring the Persian provinces, and having their headquarters on the Eastern frontiers of Persia.  They are described as having had their original seats on the mountains north of