“This desert route runs, then, through comparatively hilly country, crosses two small Kevir depressions, or offshoots of one and the same Kevir, has pasturage at at least one place, and presents no difficulties of any account.  The distance in a direct line is 113 miles, corresponding to 51 Persian farsakh—­the farsakh in this district being only about 2.2 miles long against 2.9 in the great Kevir.  The caravans which go through the Bahabad desert usually make the journey in ten days, one at least of which is a rest day, so that they cover little more than 12 miles a day.  If water more or less salt were not to be found at all the eight camping-grounds, the caravans would not be able to make such short marches.  It is also quite possible that sweet water is to be found in one place; where saxaul grows driftsand usually occurs, and wells digged in sand are usually sweet.

“During my stay in Tebbes a caravan of about 300 camels, as I have mentioned before, arrived from Sebsevar.  They were laden with naft (petroleum), and remained waiting till the first belt of Kevir was dried after the last rain.  As soon as this happened the caravan would take the road described above to Bahabad, and thence to Yezd.  And this caravan route, Sebsevar, Turshiz, Bajistan, Tun, Tebbes, Bahabad, and Yezd, is considered less risky than the somewhat shorter way through the great Kevir.  I myself crossed a part of the Bahabad desert where we did not once follow any of the roads used by caravans, and I found this country by no means one of the worst in Eastern Persia.

“In the above exposition I believe that I have demonstrated that it is extremely probable that Marco Polo travelled, not through Naibend to Tun, but through Bahabad to Tebbes, and thence to Tun and Kain.  His own description accords in all respects with the present aspect and peculiarities of the desert route in question.  And the time of eight days he assigns to the journey between Kuh-benan and Tonocain renders it also probable that he came to the last-named province at Tebbes, even if he travelled somewhat faster than caravans are wont to do at the present day.  It signifies little that he does not mention the name Tebbes; he gives only the name of the province, adding that it contains a great many towns and villages.  One of these was Tebbes.”

XXII., p. 126.

TUTIA.

“It seems that the word is ’the Arabicized word dudha, being Persian for “smokes."’ There can be little doubt that we have direct confirmation of this in the Chinese words t’ou-t’ieh (still, I think, in use) and t’ou-shik, meaning ‘tou-iron’ and ‘t’ou-ore.’  The character T’ou [Chinese] does not appear in the old dictionaries; its first appearance is in the History of the Toba (Tungusic) Dynasty of North China.  This History first mentions the name ‘Persia’ in A.D. 455 and the existence there of this metal, which, a little later on, is