of the First Crusade, and were known as the
_Tafurs_,[9] ate the Turks whom they killed at the siege, looks very like
an abominable truth, corroborated as it is by the prose chronicle of worse
deeds at the ensuing siege of Marrha:--

"A lor cotiaus qu'il ont trenchans et afiles
Escorchoient les Turs, aval parmi les pres.
Voiant Paiens, les ont par pieces decoupes.
En l'iave et el carbon les ont bien quisines,
Volontiers les menjuent sans pain et dessales."[10]

(_Della Penna_, p. 76; _Reinaud, Rel._ I. 52; _Rennie's Peking_, II. 244;
_Ann. de la Pr. de la F._ XXIX. 353, XXI. 298; _Hayton_ in _Ram._ ch.
xvii.; _Per. Quat._ p. 116; _M. Paris_, sub. 1243; _Mel. Asiat. Acad. St.
Petersb._ II. 659; _Canale_ in _Arch. Stor. Ital._ VIII.; _Bergm. Nomad.
Streifereien_, I. 14; _Carpini_, 638; _D'Ohsson_, II. 30, 43, 52;
_Wilson's Ever Victorious Army_, 74; _Shaw_, p. 48; _Abdallatif_, p. 363
seqq.; _Weber_, II. 135; _Littre, H. de la Langue Franc._ I. 191; _Gesta
Tancredi_ in _Thes. Nov. Anecd._ III. 172.)

NOTE 10.--_Bakhshi_ is generally believed to be a corruption of _Bhikshu_,
the proper Sanscrit term for a religious mendicant, and in particular for
the Buddhist devotees of that character. _Bakhshi_ was probably applied to
a class only of the Lamas, but among the Turks and Persians it became a
generic name for them all. In this sense it is habitually used by
Rashiduddin, and thus also in the Ain Akbari: "The learned among the
Persians and Arabians call the priests of this (Buddhist) religion
_Bukshee_, and in Tibbet they are styled Lamas."

According to Pallas the word among the modern Mongols is used in the sense
of _Teacher_, and is applied to the oldest and most learned priest of a
community, who is the local ecclesiastical chief. Among the Kirghiz
Kazzaks again, who profess Mahomedanism, the word also survives, but
conveys among them just the idea that Polo seems to have associated with
it, that of a mere conjuror or "medicine-man"; whilst in Western Turkestan
it has come to mean a Bard.

The word Bakhshi has, however, wandered much further from its original
meaning. From its association with persons who could read and write, and
who therefore occasionally acted as clerks, it came in Persia to mean a
clerk or secretary. In the Petrarchian Vocabulary, published by Klaproth,
we find _scriba_ rendered in _Comanian_, i.e. Turkish of the Crimea, by
_Bacsi_. The transfer of meaning is precisely parallel to that