their train. It was always possible to see
their faces; for, in those times, the women of
the Turks were not veiled. When the husband
travelled he might often be taken for a
servant, wearing nothing but a pelisse of
sheepskin and a high cap called alcula, whilst
the wife's head-dress was incrusted with
jewels and adorned with peacock's feathers.

At Majar the traveller learned that the
camp of the Sultan was at Beoh-Taw, or the
Five Mountains. They went in search of it;
and, one day, after they had halted on the
summit of a hill, beheld the ordou or
Imperial camp approach. It resembled a great
city moving along with all its inhabitants, its
mosques, and its markets. The smoke of the
kitchens rose through the air, for the Turks
did not always halt to cook their meals.
Innumerable waggons were filled with people.
On arriving at the halting ground, they
removed the tents and the mosques and the
shops from the waggons, and prepared to pass
the night. One of the Sultan's wives, seeing a
tent on a neighbouring hill, with a standard
set up in front to announce a new arrival,
sent pages and young girls to carry her
salutations; and, having waited until they
returned, passed on to the place appointed
for her. Soon afterwards the Sultan himself
arrived, and encamped in a quarter apart.

According to Ibn-Batutah, Sultan Uzbek
was one of the seven great sovereigns of the
earth. One of the titles given to him was
that of "Conqueror of the enemies of God,
the inhabitants of Constantinople the Great."
He was remarkable as well for his business
habits as for his splendour. In the description
of his audience-days particular stress is
laid on the fact that he was always surrounded
by queens and princesses (with names
too hard to pronounce); and the importance
of women, as part of the machinery of that
empire, is constantly insisted on. Ibn-Batutah
came from different climes more to
the south, where different habits prevailed.
He enlarges complacently on the courts and
households of the four khatouns or queens;
their waggons with domes of gilded silver;
their horses covered with silken trappings;
their wise duennas; their beautiful slave girls;
their costly wardrobes, and their etiquette.
Then he gives a peculiarly Oriental biographical
account of those four ladies, one of
whom was Beialoun, daughter of the Emperor
of Constantinople the Great, Andronicus the
Third. When the traveller visited her she
was seated on a throne incrusted with stones
and precious stones, with silver feet. Before
her were a hundred young girls, Greek,
Turkish, and Nubian; some sitting, some
standing. Eunuchs were near her, with
several Greek chamberlains. On hearing of
the distance from which the travellers had
come, she wept with tenderness and compassion,
and wiped her face with a kerchief she
held in her hand. No doubt she was thinking
of her own far-off country, and parents of a
different faith from her lord. She ordered a
repast to be spread, and then dismissed her
visitors with splendid presents of provisions,
money, garments, sheep and horses.

Ibn-Batutali, ever anxious to see strange
things, had heard of the wonderful shortness
of the night in one season, and of the day in
another season, observed at the city of
Bolghar, and accordingly marched ten days
northward to visit it. He arrived there
during the months of Ramadhan; and, having
broke his fast at sunset, performed the evening
prayer, and then three other long prayers
when, lo! the dawn began to appear. He
wished to visit what was called the Land of
Darkness; forty days still further off, but the
difficulty of the journey alarmed him. He
was told that people travelled there in sledges
drawn by dogs, some of which were valued
at a thousand dinars. Their master fed them
before he touched food himself. The trade of
the country was in furs, chiefly ermine,
exported to China and India.

On his return to Beoh-Taw, Ibn-Batutah
witnessed the solemnity of the breaking of
the fast of the Ramadhan, performed with
wonderful barbaric splendour. After that the
ordou of the Sultan broke up and marched
to the city of Haj-Terkhan, now known as
Astrakhan. The word Terkhan amongst the
Turks signifies a place exempt from
taxation. The person who gave his name to the
city was a devout pilgrim or haj, who founded
it, and obtained from the Sultan the privilege
of exemption. It increased to a great size,
and became an emporium. It was the
custom of the Sultan to remain there until
the cold set in and the Volga was frozen over.

What next happened to Ibn-Batutah
suggests a strange contrast with the present
state of the East. Soon after arriving at
Astrakhan, the Khatoun Beialoun, daughter
of the King of the Greeks, asked permission
of the Sultan to visit her father at Constantinople,
in order to become a mother there,
promising to return immediately afterwards.
Her request was granted, and our traveller
begged to be allowed to accompany her, in
order that he might see the celebrated city of
the Christians. After some kindly opposition,
he received permission to do so, and was
overwhelmed with valuable presents. The
Sultan politely accompanied his Greek wife
for a day's march, and then left her to proceed
with an escort of five thousand soldiers. Her
own servants were to the number of five
hundred horsemen, for the most part slaves
or Greeks, and two hundred girls. She had
four hundred chariots, two thousand horses,
three hundred oxen, and two hundred camels.
They marched first to the town of Okak, a
well-built but small city, situated one day's
journey from the mountains inhabited by the
Russians, who were Christians with red hair,
blue eyes, ugly faces, and cunning
dispositions. They possessed mines of silver which