n_, viz.: (1) _Kanauj_, (2) _Mirat_ (or Delhi),
(3) _Mahavan_ (Mathra), (4) _Lahore_, (5) _Malwa_, (6) _Guzerat_, (7)
_Ajmir_, (8) _Gwalior_, (9) _Kalinjar_, (10) _Multan_, (11) _Ujjain_.
(_Ritter_, V. 535.) This omits Bengal, Orissa, and all the Deccan. _Twelve_
is a round number which constantly occurs in such statements. Ibn Batuta
tells us there were 12 princes in Malabar alone. Chinghiz, in
Sanang-Setzen, speaks of his vow to subdue the _twelve_ kings of the human
race (91). Certain figures in a temple at Anhilwara in Guzerat are said by
local tradition to be the effigies of the _twelve_ great kings of Europe.
(_Todd's Travels_, p. 107.) The King of Arakan used to take the title of
"Lord of the 12 provinces of Bengal" (_Reinaud, Inde_, p. 139.)

The _Masalak-al-Absar_ of Shihabuddin Dimishki, written some forty years
after Polo's book, gives a list of the provinces (twice twelve in number)
into which India was then considered to be divided. It runs--(1) _Delhi_,
(2) _Deogir_, (3) _Multan_, (4) _Kehran_ (_Kohram_, in Sirhind Division of
Province of Delhi?), (5) _Saman_ (Samana, N.W. of Delhi?), (6) _Siwastan_
(Sehwan), (7) _Ujah_ (Uchh), (8) _Hasi_ (Hansi), (9) _Sarsati_ (Sirsa),
(10) _Ma'bar_, (11) _Tiling_, (12) _Gujerat_, (13) _Badaun_, (14) _Audh_,
(15) _Kanauj_, (16) _Laknaoti_ (Upper Bengal), (17) _Bahar_, (18) _Karrah_
(in the Doab), (19) _Malawa_, (Malwa), (20) _Lahaur_, (21) _Kalanur_ (in
the Bari Doab, above Lahore), (22) _Jajnagar_ (according to Elphinstone,
Tipura in Bengal), (23) _Tilinj_ (a repetition or error), (24) _Dursamand_
(Dwara Samudra, the kingdom of the Bellals in Mysore). Neither Malabar nor
Orissa is accounted for. (See _Not. et Ext._ XIII. 170). Another list,
given by the historian Zia-uddin Barni some years later, embraces again
only _twelve_ provinces. These are (1) Delhi, (2) Gujerat, (3) Malwah, (4)
Deogir, (5) Tiling, (6) Kampilah (in the Doab, between Koil and
Farakhabad), (7) Dur Samandar, (8) Ma'bar, (9) _Tirhut_, (10) Lakhnaoti,
(11) _Satganw_, (12) _Sunarganw_ (these two last forming the Western and
Eastern portions of Lower Bengal).[1]

[1] _E. Thomas_, Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi, p. 203.

CHAPTER XXXV.

TREATING OF THE GREAT PROVINCE OF ABASH WHICH IS MIDDLE INDIA, AND IS ON
THE MAINLAND.

Abash is a very great Province, and you must know that it constitutes the
MIDDLE INDIA; and it is on the mainland. There are in it six great Kings
with six great Ki