tood a Gueber Castle. At Savah he could find no trace of Marco
Polo's legend. Chardin, in whose time Savah was not quite so far gone to
decay, heard of an alleged tomb of Samuel, at 4 leagues from the city.
This is alluded to by Hamd Allah.

Keith Johnston and Kiepert put Avah some 60 miles W.N.W. of Savah, on the
road between Kazvin and Hamadan. There seems to be some great mistake
here.

Friar Odoric puts the locality of the Magi at _Kashan_, though one of
the versions of Ramusio and the Palatine MS. (see Cordier's Odoric, pp.
xcv. and 41 of his Itinerary), perhaps corrected in this, puts it at
_Saba_--H. Y. and H. C.

We have no means of fixing the _Kala' Atishparastan_. It is probable,
however, that the story was picked up on the homeward journey, and as it
seems to be implied that this castle was reached three days _after
leaving_ Savah, I should look for it between Savah and Abher. Ruins to
which the name _Kila'-i-Gabr_, "Gueber Castle," attaches are common in
Persia.

As regards the Legend itself, which shows such a curious mixture of
Christian and Parsi elements, it is related some 350 years earlier by
Mas'udi: "In the Province of Fars they tell you of a Well called the Well
of Fire, near which there was a temple built. When the Messiah was born
the King Koresh sent three messengers to him, the first of whom carried a
bag of Incense, the second a bag of Myrrh, and the third a bag of Gold.
They set out under the guidance of the Star which the king had described
to them, arrived in Syria, and found the Messiah with Mary His Mother.
This story of the three messengers is related by the Christians with
sundry exaggerations; it is also found in the Gospel. Thus they say that
the Star appeared to Koresh at the moment of Christ's birth; that it went
on when the messengers went on, and stopped when they stopped. More ample
particulars will be found in our Historical Annals, where we have given
the versions of this legend as current among the Guebers and among the
Christians. It will be seen that Mary gave the king's messengers a round
loaf, and this, after different adventures, they hid under a rock in the
province of Fars. The loaf disappeared underground, and there they dug a
well, on which they beheld two columns of fire to start up flaming at the
surface; in short, all the details of the legend will be found in our
Annals." The Editors say that Mas'udi had carried the story to Fars by
mistaking _Shiz_ in Azerbaij