in a moment when they judge the right time has come. And after
this fashion they have won many a fight.[NOTE 6]

All this that I have been telling you is true of the manners and customs
of the genuine Tartars. But I must add also that in these days they are
greatly degenerated; for those who are settled in Cathay have taken up the
practices of the Idolaters of the country, and have abandoned their own
institutions; whilst those who have settled in the Levant have adopted the
customs of the Saracens.[NOTE 7]

NOTE 1.--The bow was the characteristic weapon of the Tartars, insomuch
that the Armenian historians often call them "The Archers." (_St. Martin_,
II. 133.) "CUIRBOULY, leather softened by boiling, in which it took any
form or impression required, and then hardened." (_Wright's Dict._) The
English adventurer among the Tartars, whose account of them is given by
Archbishop Ivo of Narbonne, in Matthew Paris (_sub._ 1243), says: "De
coriis bullitis sibi arma levia quidem, sed tamen impenetrabilia
coaptarunt." This armour is particularly described by Plano Carpini
(p. 685). See the tail-piece to Book IV.

[Mr. E. H. Parker (_China Review_, XXIV. iv. p. 205) remarks that "the
first coats of mail were made in China in 1288: perhaps the idea was
obtained from the Malays or Arabs."--H. C.]

NOTE 2.--M. Pauthier has judiciously pointed out the omissions that have
occurred here, perhaps owing to Rusticiano's not properly catching the
foreign terms applied to the various grades. In the G. Text the passage
runs: "_Et sachies que les cent mille est apelle un_ Tut (read _tuc_) _et
les dix mille un_ Toman, _et les por milier et por centenier et por
desme_." In Pauthier's (uncorrected) text one of the missing words is
supplied: "_Et appellent les C.M. un_ Tuc; _et les X.M. un_ Toman; _et un
millier_ Guz _por centenier et por disenier_." The blanks he supplies thus
from Abulghazi: "_Et un millier_: [un Miny]; _Guz, por centenier et_ [Un]
_por disenier_." The words supplied are Turki, but so is the _Guz_, which
appears already in Pauthier's text, whilst _Toman_ and _Tuc_ are common to
Turki and Mongol. The latter word, _Tuk_ or _Tugh_, is the horse-tail or
yak-tail standard which among so many Asiatic nations has marked the
supreme military command. It occurs as _Taka_ in ancient Persian, and
Cosmas Indicopleustes speaks of it as _Tupha_. The Nine Orloks or Marshals
under Chinghiz were entitled to the _Tuk_, and theirs is probably