gh this is Marco's usual formula to
define Mahomedans, we can scarcely suppose that he meant it literally. But
in other cases it was _very_ literally interpreted. Thus in _Baudouin de
Sebourc_, the Dame de Pontieu, a passionate lady who renounces her faith
before Saladin, says:--

"'Et je renoie Dieu, et le pooir qu'il a;
Et Marie, sa Mere, qu'on dist qui le porta;
_Mahom voel aourer_, aportez-le-moi cha!'
* * * * Li Soudans commanda
_Qu'on aportast Mahom; et celle l'aoura_." (I. p. 72.)

The same romance brings in the story of the Stone of Samarkand, adapted
from ch. xxxiv., and accounts for its sanctity in Saracen eyes because it
had long formed a pedestal for Mahound!

And this notion gave rise to the use of _Mawmet_ for an idol in general;
whilst from the _Mahommerie_ or place of Islamite worship the name of
_mummery_ came to be applied to idolatrous or unmeaning rituals; both very
unjust etymologies. Thus of mosques in _Richard Coeur de Lion_:

"Kyrkes they made of Crystene Lawe,
And her _Mawmettes_ lete downe drawe." (_Weber_, II. 228.)

So Correa calls a golden idol, which was taken by Da Gama in a ship of
Calicut, "an image of Mahomed" (372). Don Quixote too, who ought to have
known better, cites with admiration the feat of Rinaldo in carrying off,
in spite of forty Moors, a golden image of Mahomed.

NOTE 3.--800 _li_ (160 miles) east of _Chokiuka_ or Yarkand, Hiuen Tsang
comes to _Kiustanna_ (Kustana) or KHOTAN. "The country chiefly consists of
plains covered with stones and sand. The remainder, however, is favourable
to agriculture, and produces everything abundantly. From this country are
got woollen carpets, fine felts, well woven taffetas, white and black
jade." Chinese authors of the 10th century speak of the abundant grapes
and excellent wine of Khotan.

Chinese annals of the 7th and 8th centuries tell us that the people of
Khotan had chronicles of their own, a glimpse of a lost branch of history.
Their writing, laws, and literature were modelled upon those of India.

Ilchi, the modern capital, was visited by Mr. Johnson, of the Indian
Survey, in 1865. The country, after the revolt against the Chinese in
1863, came first under the rule of Habib-ullah, an aged chief calling
himself _Khan Badshah_ of Khotan; and since the treacherous seizure and
murder of Habib-ullah by Ya'kub Beg of Kashgar in January 1867, it has
formed a part of the kingdom of the latter.

Mr. Johnson says: