chapter xiv

. This repetition occurs only in the French MSS., but as it is in all these we cannot reject it.

NOTE 2.—The words _Camut_ and _Borgal_ appear both to be used here for what we call _Russia-Leather_. The latter word in one form or another, _Bolghár, Borgháli_, or _Bulkál_, is the term applied to that material to this day nearly all over Asia. Ibn Batuta says that in travelling during winter from Constantinople to the Wolga he had to put on three pairs of boots, one of wool (which we should call stockings), a second of wadded linen, and a third of _Borgháli_, “_i.e._ of horse-leather lined with wolf-skin.” Horse-leather seems to be still the favourite material for boots among all the Tartar nations. The name was undoubtedly taken from _Bolghar_ on the Wolga, the people of which are traditionally said to have invented the art of preparing skins in that manner. This manufacture is still one of the staple trades of Kazan, the city which in position and importance is the nearest representative of Bolghar now.

_Camut_ is explained by Klaproth to be “leather made from the back-skin of a camel.” It appears in Johnson’s Persian Dictionary as _Kámú_, but I do not know from what language it originally comes. The word is in the Latin column of the Petrarchian Vocabulary with the Persian rendering _Sagri_. This shows us what is meant, for _Saghrí_ is just our word _Shagreen_, and is applied to a fine leather granulated in that way, which is much used for boots and the like by the people of Central Asia. [In Turkish _ṣāghri_ or _saghri_ is the name both for the buttocks of a horse and the leather called _shagreen_ prepared with them. (See _Devic, Dict. Étym._)—H. C.] In the commercial lists of our Indian north-west frontier we find as synonymous _Saghri_ or _Kímukht_, “Horse or Ass-hide.” No doubt this latter word is a form of _Kámú_ or _Camut_. It appears (as _Keimukht_, “a sort of leather”) in a detail of imports to Aden given by _Ibn al Wardi_, a geographer of the 13th century.

Instead of Camut, Ramusio has _Camoscia_, _i.e._ Chamois, and the same seems to be in all the editions based on Fra Pipino’s version. It may be a misrendering of _camutum_ or _camutium_; or is there any real connexion between the Oriental _Kámú Kímukht_, and the Italian _camoscia_? (_I. B._ II. 445; _Klapr. Mém._ vol. III.; _Davies’s Trade Report_, App. p. ccxx.; _Vámbéry’s Travels_, 423; _Not. et Ext._ II. 43.)

Fraehn (writing in 1832) observes that he knew no use of the word _Bolghár_, in the sense of Russian leather, older than the 17th century. But we see that both Marco and Ibn Batuta use it. (_F. on the Wolga Bulghars_, pp. 8–9.)

Pauthier in a note (p. 285) gives a list of the garments issued to certain officials on these ceremonial occasions under the Mongols, and sure enough this list includes “pairs of boots in red leather.” Odoric particularly mentions the broad golden girdles worn at the Kaan’s court.

[La Curne, _Dict._, has _Bulga_, leather bag; old Gallic word from which are derived _bouge_ et _bougete, bourse_; he adds in a note, “Festus writes: ‘_Bulgas_ galli sacculos scorteos vocant.’”—H. C.]

NOTE 3.—“Then come mummers leading lions, which they cause to salute the Lord with reverence.” (_Odoric_, p. 143.) A lion sent by Mirza Baisangar, one of the Princes of Timur’s House, accompanied Shah Rukh’s embassy as a present to the Emperor; and like presents were frequently repeated. (See _Amyot_, XIV. 37, 38.)

##