had crosses branded on them_ said this
was done for the destruction of the Pagans, and out of reverence to the
Holy Rood." Matthew Paris, commenting on the letter quoted above, says
that many of the Jacobites _before baptism_ brand their children on the
forehead with a hot iron, whilst others brand a cross upon the cheeks or
temples. He had seen such marks also on the arms of both Jacobites and
Syrians who dwelt among the Saracens. It is clear, from Salt, that such
branding _was_ practised by many Abyssinians, and that to a recent date,
though it may have been entirely detached from baptism. A similar practice
is followed at Dwarika and Koteswar (on the old Indus mouth, now called
Lakpat River), where the Hindu pilgrims to these sacred sites are branded
with the mark of the god.

(_Orient und Occident_, Goettingen, 1862, I. 453; _Frescob._ 114;
_Clavijo_, 163; _Ramus._ I. f. 290, v., f. 184; _Marin. Sanud._ 185, and
Bk. iii. pt. viii. ch. iv.; _Clusius, Exotica_, pt. ii. p. 142; _Orland.
Fur._ XXXIII. st. 102; _Voyage en Perse, dans les Annees_ 1807-1809;
_Assemani_, II. c.; _Ludolf_, iii. 6, sec. 41; _Salt_, in _Valentia's
Trav._ II. p. 505, and his _Second Journey_, French Tr., II. 219; _M.
Paris_, p. 373; _J.R.A.S._ I. 42.)

NOTE 3.--It is pretty clear from what follows (as Marsden and others have
noted) that the narrative requires us to conceive of the Sultan of Aden as
dominant over the territory between Abyssinia and the sea, or what was in
former days called ADEL, between which and _Aden_ confusion seems to have
been made. I have noticed in Note 1 the appearance of this confusion in R.
Benjamin; and I may add that also in the Map of Marino Sanudo Aden is
represented on the western shore of the Red Sea. But is it not possible
that in the origin of the Mahomedan States of Adel the Sultan of Aden had
some power over them? For we find in the account of the correspondence
between the King of Abyssinia and Sultan Bibars, quoted in the next Note
but one, that the Abyssinian letters and presents for Egypt were sent to
the Sultan of Yemen or Aden to be forwarded.

NOTE 4.--This passage is not authoritative enough to justify us in
believing that the mediaeval Abyssinians or Nubians did use elephants in
war, for Marco has already erred in ascribing that practice to the Blacks
of Zanjibar.

There can indeed be no doubt that elephants from the countries on the west
of the Red Sea were caught and tamed and used for war, sy