s way once more
across Arabia to Mecca, whence he crossed the Red Sea to the Nubian
coast, and descended the Nile to Cairo. I shall omit his subsequent
journeys through Syria and Asia Minor, although they contain many
amusing and picturesque incidents, and turn, instead, to his adventures
in Kipchak (Southern Russia), which was then governed by a sultan
descended in a direct line from Genghis Khan. Embarking at Sinope, he
crossed the Black Sea to Caffa, in the Crimea, which was at that time a
Genoese city. Here a singular circumstance occurred:--

'We lodged in the mosque of the Mussulmans. After we had been resting
there about an hour, we suddenly heard the sound of bells resounding on
all sides. I had then never heard such a sound; I was extremely
terrified, and ordered my companions to ascend the minaret, read the
Koran, praise God, and recite the call to prayer,--which they did. We
now perceived a man who had approached us: he was armed, and wore a
cuirass. He saluted us, and we begged him to inform us who he was. He
gave us to understand that he was the Kadi of the Mussulmans of the
place, and added: "When I heard the reading of the Koran and the call to
prayers, I trembled for your safety, and therefore came to seek you."
Then he departed; but, nevertheless, we received nothing but good
treatment.'

From Caffa, Ibn Eatuta traveled in a chariot to Azof, near which place
he found the camp of the Sultan Mohammed Uzbek Khan, of whose court he
gives a very circumstantial description. He also devotes considerable
space to an account of their manner of keeping the fast of Ramadan. The
favorite wife of the sultan was a daughter of the Greek emperor, who at
the time of the traveler's visit was preparing to set out for
Constantinople, in order that her expected child might be born in the
palace of her fathers. 'I prayed the sultan,' says Ibn Batuta, 'to
permit me to journey in company with the princess, in order that I might
behold Constantinople the Great. He at first refused, out of fear for my
safety, but I solicited him, saying, "I will not enter Constantinople
except under thy protection and thy patronage, and therefore I will fear
no one." He then gave me permission to depart, making me a present of
fifteen hundred ducats, a robe of honor, and a great number of horses.'

The journey to Constantinople was made entirely by land, and consumed
more than two months. It is rather difficult to locate the precise route
tra