1 MÉmoires sur les contrÉes occidentales, par Hiouen-Thoang, tr. du chinois par S. Julien, 2 t., 1857–8.

Si-yu-ki. Tr. from the Chinese of Hieuen Tsiang by S. Beal. 2 v. (TrÜbners Oriental Series) 1884.

Hist. de la vie de Hiouen Thsang et de ses voyages dans l’Inde A.D. 629–45, par Hoei-Li et Yen-Thsong. Tr. du Chinois par S. Julien. Imprim. ImpÉr. 1853.

The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang. Tr. by S. Beal. (TrÜbner’s Oriental Series) 1878.

The spelling of Oriental names of persons and places varies widely in English, as well as in other European languages, according to the system of transliteration employed.

2 The Author possesses a picture of the source of the Ganges, painted on panel, on the spot, by the late W. Simpson. Fakirs, at least in his time, were wont, when the end of life drew near, to ascend the glacier, and terminate the illusions of existence on the snow-mountains above it. Simpson saw a Fakir climbing up a snow-slope for this purpose. Now, as well as one can judge from this panel, the lower end of the glacier from which the infant Ganges is seen flowing would be about as broad as Hiuen-Tsiang states the source of the river to be.

3 Beal’s translation of Si-yu-ki vol. i., p. 70.

4 J. Talboy Wheeler, “History of India,” London, 1874, vol. iii, p. 261.

5 W. H. Johnson, who was the first European to visit Khotan for 260 years, heard of these cities buried in the sand (1865).

6 For recent travels in Eastern Turkestan, see Prjevalsky, N. From Kulja across the Thian Shan to Lob-Nor, tr. E. D. Morgan, 1879.

7 A measure which varies in different provinces. It is the Chinese foot-measure, always shorter than ours.

8 The Latin text is printed with a translation by Brownlow, by the Palestine Pilgrims Text Society. 1892.

9 Memoirs of the Emperor Johangueir, by himself. Tr. from Persian by D. Price. Oriental Translation Fund. 1829. pp. 96–104.

10 Chaucer, Man of Lawe’s Tale. Part I., st. i, l. 4. The derivation of Satin is obvious.

11 Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. iv. p. 405.

12 P’u Sung-ling finished his work A.D. 1679, and saw the trick when he was a boy.

13 Part of the illusion described by Ibn BatÛta, known as the Indian Rope Trick, was seen by the late Professor Middleton, of the South Kensington Museum, in Morocco, and is fully described by Wilfred Scawen Blount’s Diaries, 1888–1900, p. 86, sqq. The trick has been much discussed during the last few years, and conjurers confess that it perplexes them. (“Baffled magicians,” Times, Feb. 6th, 1919). Mr. C. R. Sanderson, Librarian to the National Liberal Club, kindly drew my attention to certain articles and correspondence in popular journals (Strand Magazine, April, 1919; Daily Mail, Jan. 7th, 1913, and a discussion in the same newspaper, beginning Jan. 8th, 1919, and ending Feb. 19th, 1919). It is a common belief among English residents in India that some of these illusions are due to hypnotism; but, as a rule, only people who are capable of great concentration of mind, or who are in the habit of obeying commands are readily hypnotized, and then only by direct suggestion, and not, so say the best authorities, by will-power. Cases of hypnosis at a distance have been recorded; but the subjects had already been hypnotized by the operator; and, if these accounts should be proved veridical, telepathy might possibly explain them. The instance photographed by Lieut. F. W. Holmes, V.C., is a degenerate form of the trick. If a cinematograph record of a really fine exhibition of this illusion could be taken, probably the problem would be solved conclusively.

14 A translation of an abbreviated copy of BatÛta’s travels was made by the Revd. S. Lee, and published by the Oriental Translation Fund in 1829. Since that date the French advance in Algeria led to the discovery of several copies of the unabridged work; and the “Voyages d’Ibn Batoutah,” translated into French by C. DefrÉmery and Dr. B. R. Sanguinette, with the original Arabic text under the translation, appeared in Paris in 1853, at the hands of the SociÉtÉ Asiatique. There are several examples of the original MS. extant, which slightly vary from each other, and often differ considerably from the abbreviation as to matter of fact.

15 B and V are to be found controvertible both in old Italian and in old Spanish. Bartema instead of Varthema is on the title page of more than one edition of the Itinerario.

16 Dante, Inferno, ix, 76, 77.

17 Varthema gives all the words of the queen in Arabic, phonetically written, followed by a rendering in Italian. He had learned to speak Arabic, none too perfectly, but not to write it.

18

19 Giosafat Barbaro & A. Contarini. Travels to Tana and Persia. Tr. by W. Thomas, Clerk of the Council to Edward VI., and by S. A. Roy. 8vo. 1873.

20 Should not Varthema have written milk?

21 A copy, rebound in red velvet, is one of the treasures of the Library in the British Museum.