Northern Persia, or perhaps to the Wall of Gomushtapah, described by
Vambery.

Ricold of Montecroce allows two arguments to connect the Tartars with the
Jews who were shut up by Alexander; one that the Tartars hated the very
name of Alexander, and could not bear to hear it; the other, that their
manner of writing was very like the Chaldean, meaning apparently the
Syriac (_ante_, p. 29). But he points out that they had no resemblance to
Jews, and no knowledge of the law.

Edrisi relates how the Khalif Wathek sent one Salem the Dragoman to
explore the Rampart of Gog and Magog. His route lay by Tiflis, the Alan
country, and that of the Bashkirds, to the far north or north-east, and
back by Samarkand. But the report of what he saw is pure fable.

In 1857, Dr. Bellew seems to have found the ancient belief in the legend
still held by Afghan gentlemen at Kandahar.

At Gelath in Imeretia there still exists one valve of a large iron gate,
traditionally said to be the relic of a pair brought as a trophy from
Derbend by David, King of Georgia, called the Restorer (1089-1130). M.
Brosset, however, has shown it to be the gate of Ganja, carried off in
1139.

(_Bayer in Comment. Petropol._ I. 401 seqq.; _Pseudo-Callisth._ by
_Mueller_, p. 138; _Gott. Viterb._ in _Pistorii Nidani Script. Germ._ II.
228; _Alexandriade_, pp. 310-311; _Pereg._ IV. p. 118; _Acad. des Insc.
Divers Savans_, II. 483; _Edrisi_, II. 416-420, etc.)

NOTE 4.--The box-wood of the Abkhasian forests was so abundant, and formed
so important an article of Genoese trade, as to give the name of _Chao de
Bux_ (Cavo di Bussi) to the bay of Bambor, N.W. of Sukum Kala', where the
traffic was carried on. (See _Elie de Laprim._ 243.) Abulfeda also speaks
of the Forest of Box (_Shara' ul-buks_) on the shores of the Black Sea,
from which box-wood was exported to all parts of the world; but his
indication of the exact locality is confused. (_Reinaud's Abulf._ I. 289.)

At the present time "Boxwood abounds on the southern coast of the Caspian,
and large quantities are exported from near Resht to England and Russia.
It is sent up the Volga to Tsaritzin, from thence by rail to the Don, and
down that river to the Black Sea, from whence it is shipped to England."
(_MS. Note_, H. Y.)

[Cf. V. Helm's _Cultivated Plants_, edited by J. S. Stallybrass, Lond.,
1891, _The Box Tree_, pp. 176-179.--H. C.]

NOTE 5.--Jerome Cardan notices that "the best and biggest goshawks come
from