ench of some kind was the handiest
medium of communication between the two? I have known an Englishman and a
Hollander driven to converse in Malay; Chinese Christians of different
provinces are said sometimes to take to English as the readiest means of
intercommunication; and the same is said even of Irish-speaking Irishmen
from remote parts of the Island.

It is worthy of remark how many notable narratives of the Middle Ages have
been dictated instead of being written by their authors, and that in cases
where it is impossible to ascribe this to ignorance of writing. The
Armenian Hayton, though evidently a well-read man, possibly could not
write in Roman characters. But Joinville is an illustrious example. And
the narratives of four of the most famous Mediaeval Travellers[21] seem to
have been drawn from them by a kind of pressure, and committed to paper by
other hands. I have elsewhere remarked this as indicating how little
diffused was literary ambition or vanity; but it would perhaps be more
correct to ascribe it to that intense dislike which is still seen on the
shores of the Mediterranean to the use of pen and ink. On certain of those
shores at least there is scarcely any inconvenience that the majority of
respectable and good-natured people will not tolerate--inconvenience to
their neighbours be it understood--rather than put pen to paper for the
purpose of preventing it.

[1] 232 chapters in the oldest French which we quote as the _Geographic
Text_ (or G. T.), 200 in Pauthier's Text, 183 in the Crusca Italian.

[2] The MS. has been printed by Baldelli as above, and again by Bartoli in
1863.

[3] This is somewhat peculiar. I traced a few lines of it, which with Del
Riccio's note were given in facsimile in the First Edition.

[4] The Crusca is cited from Bartoli's edition.

French idioms are frequent, as _l'uomo_ for the French _on_;
_quattro-vinti_ instead of _ottanta_; etc.

We have at p. 35, "_Questo piano e molto_ cavo," which is nonsense,
but is explained by reference to the French (G. T.) "_Voz di qu'il est
celle plaingne mout_ chaue" (_chaude_).

The bread in Kerman is bitter, says the G. T. "_por ce que l'eive hi
est_ amer," because the water there is bitter. The Crusca mistakes the
last word and renders (p. 40) "_e questi e per lo_ mare _che vi
viene_."

"_Sachies de voir qe_ endementiers," know for a truth that whilst----,
by some misunde