Early Travels in Palestine Part 29

[437] Homs, or Hems, the ancient Emessa.

[438] This plain is the ancient Clo-Syria.

[439] Hamath of Scripture, the Epiphania of the Greeks.

[440] The El Asi, or Orontes.

[441] These wheels are still common on the Orontes.

[442] Tur-Kadir-Oglu.

[443] It is not very easy to identify this animal by La Brocquiere's description; if he had not described it as "large," we might have supposed it to be a gazelle.

[444] Karaman-oglu, the Seljukian prince of Karamania.

[445] Ana.n.u.s, now the Giaour Tagh.

[446] The Gulf of Ayas, the ancient aegae.

[447] Probably the one known as G.o.dfrey de Bouillon's castle.

[448] p.r.o.nounced yuyurt.

[449] The Christians of Asia believed implicitly that the infidels had a disagreeable smell which was peculiar to them, and which baptism took away. This superst.i.tion will be again noticed. The baptism was, according to the Greek ritual, by immersion.

[450] Kara-Kapu, or Temir-Kapu, "the Iron Gates," the ancient Pylae Amameae.

[451] The Campus Alcius of the ancients, now Tchukur Ovah.

[452] Sis, or perhaps Anazarbe.

[453] Now called Jeihun.

[454] Missisah, on the Jeihun.

[455] The churches have now entirely disappeared.

[456] This bridge is at present constructed of stone.

[457] Adanah.

[458] The Seihun, the ancient Surus.

[459] Tarsus.

[460] La Brocquiere is right in his conjecture.

[461] The ancient Cydnus.

[462] Kurkuss, the ancient Corycus.

[463] Kulek Boghaz.

[464] Karaman.

[465] The Lusignans, when kings of Cyprus, towards the end of the twelfth Century, had introduced the French language into that island. It was at Cyprus, when St. Louis put in there on his crusade to Egypt, that the code called "the a.s.sizes of Jerusalem" was drawn up and published, and which became the code of laws for the Cypriots. The French language continued long to be that of the court and of well educated persons.

[466] Louis, son to Amadeus VIII., duke of Savoy. He married, in 1432, Anne de Lusignan, daughter to John II., king of Cyprus, deceased in the month of June, and sister to John III., then on the throne.

[467] "The copyist has written it further on _Quohongue_ and _Quhongue_.

I shall write it henceforward _Couhongue_." (The translator.) It is Koniyeh, the low Greek Koniopolis, the ancient Iconium.

[468] Amurath, or Mured, II.

[469] Kaisariyeh, or Caesarea in Cappadocia.

[470] Kadir-Oglu?

[471] These warlike women probably gave rise to the story of the Amazons. See Sir John Maundeville, p. 206.

[472] Tyana?

[473] Ak-Serai, or Al-Shehr.

[474] Kara-hissar, which signifies black castle, and not black stone.

[475] Kutaiyeh, the ancient Cotyaeium.

[476] Brusa, the ancient Prusa.

[477] The _huvette_ was a kind of ornament worn on the hat.

[478] From the description, it seems to be the arbutus Andrachne.

[479] The Turks at this time held Scutari, but they had not obtained possession of Constantinople.

[480] The Greeks. It was their hatred to the Latin church which facilitated the fall of Constantinople.

[481] In 1438, John Paleologus II. came to Italy to form a union between the Greek and Latin churches, which took place the ensuing year at the council of Florence. But this step, as La Brocquiere remarks, was, on the part of the emperor, but a political operation, dictated by interest, and without consequence. His dominions were then in so miserable a state, and himself so hara.s.sed by the Turks, that he was anxious to procure the aid of the Latins; and it was with this hope that he had come to inveigle the pope. This epoch, of 1438, is of consequence to our travels; for it proves, since La Brocquiere quotes it, that he published it posterior to that year.

[482] An error. The general council that took place a little before he came to Constantinople was that of Basil in 1431, when, far from anathematising and cursing the Greeks, it was occupied about their reunion. This pretended malediction was undoubtedly a report, which those who were against this reunion spread abroad in Constantinople; and the traveller seems to have thought so by the expression "_it was told me_."

[483] The manner in which our traveller here announces the relation of the Neapolitan shows how little he believed it; and in this his usual good sense does not forsake him. This recital is, in fact, but a tissue of absurd fables and revolting marvels, undeserving to be quoted, although they may generally be found in authors of those times. They are, therefore, here omitted; most of them, however, will be found in the narrative of John de Maundeville.

[484] Two of these galleries, or porticos, called by our author cloisters, as well as the columns, still exist. These last are formed of different materials, porphyry, granite, marble, &c.; and this is the reason why the traveller, not being a naturalist, represents them as being of various colours.

[485] This emperor was John Paleologus II.; his brother Demetrius, despot or prince of the Peloponnesus; his mother Irene, daughter to Constantine Dragases, sovereign of a small country in Macedonia; his wife Maria Comnenes, daughter to Alexis, emperor of Trebisonde.