File:The book of Ser Marco Polo - the Venetian concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East (1903) (14789435603).jpg

Identifier: bookofsermarcopo00polo (find matches)
Title: The book of Ser Marco Polo : the Venetian concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Polo, Marco, 1254-1323? Cordier, Henri, 1849-1925 Yule, Amy Frances Yule, Henry, Sir, 1820-1889
Subjects: Polo, Marco, 1254-1323? Yule, Henry, Sir, 1820-1889 Genghis Khan, 1162-1227 Polo family Inscriptions, Chinese Early maps Mongols Voyages and travels
Publisher: London : John Murray
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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product of a necessarily different ore, from iron ; and somesuch view is, I suspect, still common in the East. An old Indian officer told me of thereply of a native friend to whom he had tried to explain the conversion of iron intosteel— What ! You would have me believe that if I put an ass into the furnace itwill come forth a horse. And Indian Steel again seems to have been regarded as adistinct natural species from ordinary steel. It is in fact made by a peculiar butsimple process, by which the iron is converted directly into cast-steel, without passingthrough any intermediate stage analogous to that of blister-steel. When specimenswere first examined in England, chemists concluded that the steel was made directfrom the ore. The Ondaniqtie of Marco no doubt was a fine steel resembling the * In Richardson s Pers. Diet., by Johnson, we have a word Rohan, Rohina (and other forms).The finest Indian steel, of which the most excellent swords are made ; also the swords made of thatsteel.
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Texture, with Animals, etc., from a Cashmere Scarf in the Indian Museum. ^c fceberses manures Inheres k testes et anstnus mout richement. 96 MARCO POLO Book I. Indian article. (Mailers Ctesias, p. 80 ; Ctirtius, IX. 24 ; Mullens Geog. Gr. Min. I.262 ; Digest. Novum, Lugd. 1551, Lib. XXXIX. Tit. 4 ; Salinas. Ex. Plinian. II.763 ; Edrisi, I. 65-66; J. R. S. A. A. 387 seqq. ; Hamasae Carmina, I. 526 ; Elliot,II. 209, 394; Reynolds1 s Utbi, p. 216.) Note 4.—Paulus Jovius in the 16th century says, I know not on what authority,that Kerman was then celebrated for the fine temper of its steel in scimitars and lance-points. These were eagerly bought at high prices by the Turks, and their qualitywas such that one blow of a Kerman sabre would cleave an European helmet withoutturning the edge. And I see that the phrase, Kermani blade is used in poetry byMarcos contemporary Amir Khusru of Delhi. (P. Jov. Hist, of his own Time, Bk.XIV. ; Elliot, III. 537.) There is, or was in Pottingers time, sti

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