at _Tartar_ is a vulgar European error. It is in any
case a very old one; nor does it seem to be of European origin, but rather
Armenian;[1] though the suggestion of Tartarus may have given it readier
currency in Europe. Russian writers, or rather writers who have been in
Russia, sometimes try to force on us a specific limitation of the word
_Tartar_ to a certain class of Oriental Turkish race, to whom the Russians
appropriate the name. But there is no just ground for this. _Tatar_ is
used by Oriental writers of Polo's age exactly as Tartar was then, and is
still, used in Western Europe, as a generic title for the Turanian hosts
who followed Chinghiz and his successors. But I believe the name in this
sense was unknown to Western Asia before the time of Chinghiz. And General
Cunningham must overlook this when he connects the _Tatariya_ coins,
mentioned by Arab geographers of the 9th century, with "the Scythic or
Tatar princes who ruled in Kabul" in the beginning of our era. Tartars on
the Indian frontier in those centuries are surely to be classed with the
Frenchmen whom Brennus led to Rome, or the Scotchmen who fought against
Agricola.

[1] See _J. As._ ser. V. tom. xi. p. 203.

CHAPTER VII.

HOW THE GREAT KAAN SENT THE TWO BROTHERS AS HIS ENVOYS TO THE POPE.

When that Prince, whose name was CUBLAY KAAN, Lord of the Tartars all over
the earth, and of all the kingdoms and provinces and territories of that
vast quarter of the world, had heard all that the Brothers had to tell him
about the ways of the Latins, he was greatly pleased, and he took it into
his head that he would send them on an Embassy to the Pope. So he urgently
desired them to undertake this mission along with one of his Barons; and
they replied that they would gladly execute all his commands as those of
their Sovereign Lord. Then the Prince sent to summon to his presence one
of his Barons whose name was COGATAL, and desired him to get ready, for it
was proposed to send him to the Pope along with the Two Brothers. The
Baron replied that he would execute the Lord's commands to the best of his
ability.

After this the Prince caused letters from himself to the Pope to be
indited in the Tartar tongue,[NOTE 1] and committed them to the Two
Brothers and to that Baron of his own, and charged them with what he
wished them to say to the Pope. Now the contents of the letter were to
this purport: He begged that the Pope would send as many as an hundred