d _Elenovka_
on the shores of Lake Sevan, N.E. of Erivan. Ramusio's text, moreover,
says that the lake was _four days in compass_, and this description will
apply, I believe, to none but the lake just named. This is, according to
Monteith, 47 miles in length and 21 miles in breadth, and as far as I can
make out he travelled round it in three very long marches. Convents and
churches on its shores are numerous, and a very ancient one occupies an
island on the lake. The lake is noted for its fish, especially magnificent
trout.

(_Tavern._ Bk. III. ch. iii.; _J. R. G. S._ X. 897; _Pereg. Quat._ p. 179;
_Khanikoff_, 15; _Moorcroft_, II. 382; _J. R. G. S._ III. 40 seqq.)

Ramusio has: "In this province there is a fine city called TIFLIS, and
round about it are many castles and walled villages. It is inhabited by
Christians, Armenians, Georgians, and some Saracens and Jews, but not
many."

NOTE 7.--The name assigned by Marco to the Caspian, "Mer de Gheluchelan"
or "Ghelachelan," has puzzled commentators. I have no doubt that the
interpretation adopted above is the correct one. I suppose that Marco said
that the sea was called "La Mer de Ghel ou (de) Ghelan," a name taken from
the districts of the ancient _Gelae_ on its south-western shores, called
indifferently _Gil_ or _Gilan_, just as many other regions of Asia have
like duplicate titles (singular and plural), arising, I suppose, from the
change of a _gentile_ into a _local_ name. Such are Lar, Laran, Khutl,
Khutlan, etc., a class to which Badakhshan, Wakhan, Shaghnan, Mungan,
Chag-hanian, possibly Bamian, and many others have formerly belonged, as
the adjectives in some cases surviving, _Badakhshi, Shaghni, Wakhi_, etc.,
show[2] The change exemplified in the induration of these _gentile
plurals_ into _local singulars_ is everywhere traced in the passage from
earlier to later geography. The old Indian geographical lists, such as are
preserved in the Puranas, and in Pliny's extracts from Megasthenes, are,
in the main, lists of _peoples_, not of provinces, and even where the real
name seems to be local a _gentile_ form is often given. So also _Tochari_
and _Sogdi_ are replaced by _Tokharistan_ and _Sughd_; the _Veneti_ and
_Taurini_ by Venice and Turin; the _Remi_ and the _Parisii_, by Rheims and
Paris; _East-Saxons_ and _South-Saxons_ by Essex and Sussex; not to
mention the countless _-ings_ that mark the tribal settlement of the
Saxons in Britain.

Abulfeda, speaking of