furnished the ancient
Russian _rubles_ or ingots. Thus the original _ruble_ was the _saumah_ of
Ibn Batuta, the _sommo_ of Pegolotti. A ruble seems to be still called by
some term like _saumah_ in Central Asia; it is printed _soom_ in the
Appendix to Davies's Punjab Report, p. xi. And Professor Bruun tells me
that the silver ruble is called _Som_ by the Ossethi of Caucasus.[2]

Franc.-Michel quotes from Fitz-Stephen's Desc. of London (_temp._ Henry
II.):--

"_Aurum mittit Arabs ...
Seres purpureas vestes; Galli sua vina;
Norwegi_, Russi, varium, grysium, sabelinas."

Russia was overrun with fire and sword as far as Tver and Torshok by Batu
Khan (1237-1238), some years before his invasion of Poland and Silesia.
Tartar tax-gatherers were established in the Russian cities as far north
as Rostov and Jaroslawl, and for many years Russian princes as far as
Novgorod paid homage to the Mongol Khans in their court at Sarai. Their
subjection to the Khans was not such a trifle as Polo seems to imply; and
at least a dozen Russian princes met their death at the hands of the
Mongol executioner.

[Illustration: Mediaeval Russian Church. (From Fergusson.)]

NOTE 2.--The _Lac_ of this passage appears to be WALLACHIA. Abulfeda calls
the Wallachs _Aulak_; Rubruquis _Illac_, which he says is the same word as
_Blac_ (the usual European form of those days being _Blachi, Blachia_), but
the Tartars could not pronounce the B (p. 275). Abulghazi says the original
inhabitants of Kipchak were the _Urus_, the Olaks, _the Majars_, and the
_Bashkirs_.

Rubruquis is wrong in placing _Illac_ or Wallachs in Asia; at least the
people near the Ural, who he says were so-called by the Tartars, cannot
have been Wallachs. Professor Bruun, who corrects my error in following
Rubruquis, thinks those Asiatic _Blac_ must have been _Polovtzi_, or
Cumanians.

[Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, p. 130, note) writes: "A branch of the Volga
Bulgars occupied the Moldo-Vallach country in about A.D. 485, but it was
not until the first years of the 6th century that a portion of them passed
the Danube under the leadership of Asparuk, and established themselves in
the present Bulgaria, Friar William's 'Land of Assan.'"--H.C.]

NOTE 3.--_Oroech_ is generally supposed to be a mistake for _Noroech_,
NORWEGE or Norway, which is probable enough. But considering the Asiatic
sources of most of our author's information, it is also possible that
_Oroech_ represents WAREG. The