uslin,
and refers to passages in 'The Arabian Nights.' [Bretschneider (_Med.
Res._ II. p. 122) observes "that in the narrative of Ch'ang Ch'un's
travels to the west in 1221, it is stated that in Samarkand the men of the
lower classes and the priests wrap their heads about with a piece of white
_mo-sze_. There can be no doubt that mo-sze here denotes 'muslin,' and the
Chinese author seems to understand by this term the same material which we
are now used to call muslin."--H. C.] I have found no elucidation of
Polo's application of _mosolini_ to a class of merchants. But, in a letter
of Pope Innocent IV. (1244) to the Dominicans in Palestine, we find
classed as different bodies of Oriental Christians, "_Jacobitae,
Nestoritae, Georgiani, Graeci, Armeni, Maronitae, et_ Mosolini." (_Le
Quien_, III. 1342.)

NOTE 4.--"The Curds," says Ricold, "exceed in malignant ferocity all the
barbarous nations that I have seen.... They are called _Curti_, not
because they are curt in stature, but from the Persian word for
_Wolves_.... They have three principal vices, viz., Murder, Robbery, and
Treachery." Some say they have not mended since, but his etymology is
doubtful. _Kurt_ is Turkish for a wolf, not Persian, which is _Gurg_; but
the name (_Karduchi, Kordiaei_, etc.) is older, I imagine, than the
Turkish language in that part of Asia. Quatremere refers it to the Persian
_gurd_, "strong, valiant, hero." As regards the statement that some of the
Kurds were Christians, Mas'udi states that the Jacobites and certain other
Christians in the territory of Mosul and Mount Judi were reckoned among
the Kurds. (_Not. et Ext._ XIII. i. 304.) [The Kurds of Mosul are in part
nomadic and are called _Kotcheres_, but the greater number are sedentary
and cultivate cereals, cotton, tobacco, and fruits. (_Cuinet._) Old
Kurdistan had Shehrizor (Kerkuk, in the sanjak of that name) as its
capital.--H. C.]

NOTE 5.--Ramusio here, as in all passages where other texts have
_Bucherami_ and the like, puts _Boccassini_, a word which has become
obsolete in its turn. I see both _Bochayrani_ and _Bochasini_ coupled, in
a Genoese fiscal statute of 1339, quoted by Pardessus. (_Lois Maritimes_,
IV. 456.)

MUSH and MARDIN are in very different regions, but as their actual
interval is only about 120 miles, they _may_ have been under one
provincial government. Mush is essentially Armenian, and, though the seat
of a Pashalik, is now a wretched place. Mardin, on the verge