["Supposing that M. Polo mentions this place on his way from Sha-chow to Su-chow, it is natural to think that it is Chi-kin-talas, i.e.  ’Chi-kin plain’ or valley; Chi-kin was the name of a lake, called so even now, and of a defile, which received its name from the lake.  The latter is on the way from Kia-yue kwan to Ansi chow.” (Palladius, l.c. p. 7.) “Chikin, or more correctly Chigin, is a Mongol word meaning ‘ear.’” (Ibid.) Palladius (p. 8) adds:  “The Chinese accounts of Chi-kin are not in contradiction to the statements given by M. Polo regarding the same subject; but when the distances are taken into consideration, a serious difficulty arises; Chi-kin is two hundred and fifty or sixty li distant from Su-chow, whilst, according to M. Polo’s statement, ten days are necessary to cross this distance.  One of the three following explanations of this discrepancy must be admitted:  either Chingintalas is not Chi-kin, or the traveller’s memory failed, or, lastly, an error crept into the number of days’ journey.  The two last suppositions I consider the most probable; the more so that similar difficulties occur several times in Marco Polo’s narrative.” (L.c. p. 8.)—­H.  C.]

NOTE 2.—­[Ondanique.—­We have already referred to this word, Kerman, p. 90. Cobinan, p. 124.  La Curne de Sainte-Palaye (Dict.), F. Godefroy (Dict.), Du Cange (Gloss.), all give to andain the meaning of enjambee, from the Latin andare.  Godefroy, s.v. andaine, calls it sorte d’acier ou de fer, and quotes besides Marco Polo: 

  “I. espiel, ou ot fer d’andaine,
  Dont la lamele n’iert pas trouble.”

(Huon de Mery, Le Tornoiement de l’Antechrist, p. 3, Tarbe.)

There is a forest in the department of Orne, arrondissement of Domfront, which belonged to the Crown before 1669, and is now State property, called Foret d’Andaine; it is situated near some bed of iron.  Is this the origin of the name?—­H.  C.]

NOTE 3.—­The Altai, or one of its ramifications, is probably the mountain of the text, but so little is known of this part of the Chinese territory that we can learn scarcely anything of its mineral products.  Still Martini does mention that asbestos is found “in the Tartar country of Tangu,” which probably is the Tangnu Oola branch of the Altai to the south of the Upper Yenisei, and in the very region we have indicated as Chingintalas.  Mr. Elias tells me he inquired for asbestos by its Chinese name at Uliasut’ai, but without success.

NOTE 4.—­

  “Degli elementi quattro principali,
  Che son la Terra, e l’Acqua, e l’Aria, e’l Foco,
  Composti sono gli universi Animali,
  Pigliando di ciascuno assai o poco.”
      (Dati, La Sfera, p. 9.)

Zurficar in the next sentence is a Mahomedan name, Zu’lfikar, the title of [the edge of] Ali’s sword.