o emerge in Kurdistan. (See IX.
19.)

The "17 days" applies to one stretch of desert. The whole journey from
Ukek Bokhara would take some 60 days at least. Ibn Batuta is 58 days from
Sarai to Bokhara, and of the last section he says, "we entered the desert
which extends between Khwarizm and Bokhara, and _which has an extent of 18
days' journey_." (III. 19.)

CHAPTER III.

HOW THE TWO BROTHERS, AFTER CROSSING A DESERT, CAME TO THE CITY OF BOCARA,
AND FELL IN WITH CERTAIN ENVOYS THERE.

After they had passed the desert, they arrived at a very great and noble
city called BOCARA, the territory of which belonged to a king whose name
was Barac, and is also called Bocara. The city is the best in all
Persia.[NOTE 1] And when they had got thither, they found they could
neither proceed further forward nor yet turn back again; wherefore they
abode in that city of Bocara for three years. And whilst they were
sojourning in that city, there came from Alau, Lord of the Levant, Envoys
on their way to the Court of the Great Kaan, the Lord of all the Tartars
in the world. And when the Envoys beheld the Two Brothers they were
amazed, for they had never before seen Latins in that part of the world.
And they said to the Brothers: "Gentlemen, if ye will take our counsel, ye
will find great honour and profit shall come thereof." So they replied
that they would be right glad to learn how. "In truth," said the Envoys,
"the Great Kaan hath never seen any Latins, and he hath a great desire so
to do. Wherefore, if ye will keep us company to his Court, ye may depend
upon it that he will be right glad to see you, and will treat you with
great honour and liberality; whilst in our company ye shall travel with
perfect security, and need fear to be molested by nobody."[NOTE 2]

NOTE 1.--Hayton also calls Bokhara a city of Persia, and I see Vambery
says that, up till the conquest by Chinghiz, Bokhara, Samarkand, Balkh,
etc., were considered to belong to Persia. (_Travels_, p. 377.) The first
Mongolian governor of Bokhara was Buka Bosha.

King Barac is Borrak Khan, great-grandson of Chagatai, and sovereign of
the Ulus of Chagatai, from 1264 to 1270. The Polos, no doubt, reached
Bokhara before 1264, but Borrak must have been sovereign some time before
they left it.

NOTE 2.--The language of the envoys seems rather to imply that they were
the Great Kaan's own people returning from the Court of Hulaku. And Rashid
mentions that Sartak, the K