re are no
indications of the form of buildings,... but simply large quantities of
large bricks, which for a long time have been carried away and used for
modern buildings.... After rain coins are found on the surface.... There
can be no doubt of a very large extent of ground, of very irregular and
uninviting character, having been covered at some time with buildings. The
position on the Jelam would answer well for the Dilawar which the Mongol
invaders took and held.... The strange thing is that the name should not
be mentioned (I believe it is not) by any of the well-known Mahomedan
historians of India. So much for Dilawar.... The people have no
traditions. But there are the remains; and there is the name, borne by the
existing village on part of the old site." I had come to the conclusion
that this was almost certainly Polo's Dalivar, and had mapped it as such,
before I read certain passages in the _History of Ziyauddin Barni_, which
have been translated by Professor Dowson for the third volume of Elliot's
_India_. When the comrades of Ghaiassuddin Balban urged him to conquests,
the Sultan pointed to the constant danger from the Mongols,[2] saying:
"These accursed wretches have heard of the wealth and condition of
Hindustan, and have set their hearts upon conquering and plundering it.
_They have taken and plundered Lahor within my territories, and no year
passes that they do not come here and plunder the villages_.... They even
talk about the conquest and sack of Delhi." And under a later date the
historian says: "The Sultan... marched to Lahor, and ordered the
rebuilding of the fort which the Mughals had destroyed in the reigns of
the sons of Shamsuddin. The towns and villages of Lahor which the Mughals
had devastated and laid waste he repeopled." Considering these passages,
and the fact that Polo had no personal knowledge of Upper India, I now
think it probable that Marsden was right, and that _Dilivar_ is really a
misunderstanding of "_Citta_ di Livar" for _Lahawar_ or Lahore.

The _Magical darkness_ which Marco ascribes to the evil arts of the
Karaunas is explained by Khanikoff from the phenomenon of _Dry Fog_, which
he has often experienced in Khorasan, combined with the _Dust Storm_ with
which we are familiar in Upper India. In Sind these phenomena often
produce a great degree of darkness. During a battle fought between the
armies of Sindh and Kachh in 1762, such a fog came on, obscuring the light
of day for some