[43] That such accounts are not to be looked upon as entirely fabulous, may be gathered from what is related by Mr. Thomson in his travels through Palestine, viz. that on the brink of the lake Asphaltites he found numbers of “small _black pebbles_, which are soon set on fire by being held in the flame of a candle, and yield a smoke intolerably stinking and offensive; but have this remarkable property, that by burning they lose nothing of their weight, nor suffer any diminution in their bulk. They are capable of taking as fine a polish as black marble, and are likewise said to be met with of considerable size in the neighbouring mountains.” All these events took place in a few centuries. In 844 the Turks quitted Mount Caucasus, and settled in Armenia Major. In 1030 they fell upon the Saracen empire, now divided among innumerable chieftains continually at war with each other. Among these was one called the Sultan of Persia, and another of Babylon. The former being worsted, called in the Turks to his assistance. They sent him an auxiliary army of only _three thousand_ men; and from this slender beginning has arisen the vast empire of the Ottoman Porte. The three thousand men were commanded by a general called by the Greeks _Tangrolipix_, and by the Asiatics _Togrul Beg_. Being a man of ability, the Sultan of Persia, by his assistance, got the better of his adversary; but, refusing to let the Turks depart, Tangrolipix with his army withdrew to the desert of Carbonitis, where, being joined by numbers of discontented Persians, he began to invade the territories of the Saracens. The Sultan of Persia sent against him an army of twenty thousand men, whom Tangrolipix surprised and defeated, acquiring at the same time an immense booty. The fame of his victory, and his wealth, procured him bands of robbers, thieves, and blackguards, from all the neighbouring countries; so that he soon found himself at the head of fifty thousand. Against such a formidable force the Sultan of Persia marched in person; but happening to lose his life in the engagement by a fall from his horse, his men threw down their arms and acknowledged Tangrolipix to be Sultan of Persia.