y were called
Babylonian.

The brocades wrought with figures of animals in gold, of which Marco
speaks, are still a _specialite_ at Benares, where they are known by the
name of _Shikargah_ or hunting-grounds, which is nearly a translation of
the name _Thard-wahsh_ "beast-hunts," by which they were known to the
mediaeval Saracens. (See _Q. Makrizi_, IV. 69-70.) Plautus speaks of such
patterns in carpets, the produce of Alexandria--"_Alexandrina_ belluata
_conchyliata tapetia_." Athenaeus speaks of Persian carpets of like
description at an extravagant entertainment given by Antiochus Epiphanes;
and the same author cites a banquet given in Persia by Alexander, at which
there figured costly curtains embroidered with animals. In the 4th century
Asterius, Bishop of Amasia in Pontus, rebukes the Christians who indulge
in such attire: "You find upon them lions, panthers, bears, huntsmen,
woods, and rocks; whilst the more devout display Christ and His disciples,
with the stories of His miracles," etc. And Sidonius alludes to upholstery
of like character:

"Peregrina det supellex
* * *
Ubi torvus, et per artem
Resupina flexus ora,
It equo reditque telo
Simulacra bestiarum
Fugiens fugansque Parthus." (_Epist._ ix. 13.)

A modern Kashmir example of such work is shown under ch. xvii.

(_D'Avezac_, p. 524; _Pegolotti_, in _Cathay_, 295, 306; _I. B._ II. 309,
388, 422; III. 81; _Della Decima_, IV. 125-126; _Fr.-Michel, Recherches_,
etc., II. 10-16, 204-206; _Joseph. Bell. Jud._ VII. 5, 5, and V. 5, 4;
_Pliny_, VIII. 74 (or 48); _Plautus, Pseudolus_, I. 2; _Yonge's
Athenaeus_, V. 26 and XII. 54; _Mongez_ in _Mem. Acad._ IV. 275-276.)

NOTE 5.--[Bretschneider (_Med. Res._ I. p. 114) says: "Hulagu left
Karakorum, the residence of his brother, on the 2nd May, 1253, and
returned to his ordo, in order to organize his army. On the 19th October
of the same year, all being ready, he started for the west." He arrived at
Samarkand in September, 1255. For this chapter and the following of Polo,
see: _Hulagu's Expedition to Western Asia, after the Mohammedan Authors_,
pp. 112-122, and the _Translation of the Si Shi Ki_ (Ch'ang Te), pp.
122-156, in Bretschneider's _Mediaeval Researches_, I.--H. C.]

NOTE 6.--["Hulagu proceeded to the lake of _Ormia_ (Urmia), when he
ordered a castle to be built on the island of _Tala_, in the middle of the
lake, for the purpose of depositing here the immense treasures capture