ide-covered shields. Those shall be Days of Horror!'
'And what meanest thou by horror?' said the Companions; and he replied,
'SLAUGHTER! SLAUGHTER!' This beheld the Prophet in vision 600 years ago.
And could there well be worse slaughter than there was in Rei, where I,
wretch that I am, was born and bred, and where the whole population of
five hundred thousand souls was either butchered or dragged into slavery?"

Marco habitually suppresses or ignores the frightful brutalities of the
Tartars, but these were somewhat less, no doubt, in Kublai's time.

The Hindustani poet Amir Khosru gives a picture of the Mongols more
forcible than elegant, which Elliot has translated (III. 528).

This is Hayton's account of the Parthian tactics of the Tartars: "They
will run away, but always keeping their companies together; and it is very
dangerous to give them chase, for as they flee they shoot back over their
heads, and do great execution among their pursuers. They keep very close
rank, so that you would not guess them for half their real strength."
Carpini speaks to the same effect. Baber, himself of Mongol descent, but
heartily hating his kindred, gives this account of their military usage in
his day: "Such is the uniform practice of these wretches the Moghuls; if
they defeat the enemy they instantly seize the booty; if they are
defeated, they plunder and dismount their own allies, and, betide what
may, carry off the spoil." (_Erdmann_, 364, 383, 620; _Gold. Horde_, 77,
80; _Elliot_, II. 388; _Hayton_ in _Ram._ ch. xlviii.; _Baber_, 93;
_Carpini_, p. 694.)

NOTE 7.--"The Scythians" (i.e. in the absurd Byzantine pedantry,
_Tartars_), says Nicephorus Gregoras, "from converse with the Assyrians,
Persians, and Chaldaeans, in time acquired their manners and adopted their
religion, casting off their ancestral atheism.... And to such a degree
were they changed, that though in former days they had been wont to cover
the head with nothing better than a loose felt cap, and for other clothing
had thought themselves well off with the skins of wild beasts or
ill-dressed leather, and had for weapons only clubs and slings, or spears,
arrows, and bows extemporised from the oaks and other trees of their
mountains and forests, now, forsooth, they will have no meaner clothing
than brocades of silk and gold! And their luxury and delicate living came
to such a pitch that they stood far as the poles asunder from their
original habits" (II. v. 6).