he Italian is pronounced as _k_ in English.--E.

[7] It is difficult to determine whether Contarini here means Maksud-beg
or Masih-beg, as Uzun-Hassan had two sons of these names; Maksad was
the elder, and may have been the person named in the text Masu. Bec or
Beg signifies Lord or Prince.--E.

[8] The person mentioned before by Contarini as a messenger from Venice,
and whom he met with at Kaffa, was named on that occasion Paulus
Omnibamus, totally dissimilar from the name in this part of the text.
--E.

[9] Assuredly the Sava of modern maps, a city of Irac-agemi, which stands
upon one of these extraordinary rivers, so numerous in Persia, which
lose themselves in the sands, after a short but useful run.--E.

[10] About sixty miles S. S. E. from Kom. I am disposed to think that
Contarini has slumpt his journey on the present occasion; as it is
hardly to be believed a person in the weak state he describes himself
could have travelled with so much rapidity. Besides, so far as we can
learn from his journal, he travelled always with the same set of
horses. Indeed the sequel immediately justifies this suspicion, as
the subsequent dates are more distant than the travelling days of the
text would warrant.--E.

[11] See Travels of Josaphat Barbaro to Asof in 1436, in our Collection,
Vol I. p. 501, in the introduction to which article, it will be seen
that he had been sent on an embassy from Venice to Uzun-Hassan in 1572,
two years before Contarini; and appears to have remained in the east
for fourteen years in that capacity, after the departure of Contarini
on his return to Venice.--E.

[12] This nowhere distinctly appears; but we may easily understand
incidentally, and from the history of the period, that the Venetian
republic endeavoured to stir up enemies to the Turkish empire in the
east, being unable to resist its power, now exerted against them in
the Morea and the Greek islands; and we may even surmise that Uzun-
Hassan was subsidized by the Venetians to make war upon the Turks.--E.

SECTION IV.

_Contarini accompanies Uzun-Hassan from Ispahan to Tauris, where he finds
Ambassadors from the Duke of Burgundy and the Prince of Muscovy, and gets
leave to return to Venice._

The king left Ispahan with all his court on the 25th of November for
Tauris, and we travelled along with him, passing through most of the
pla