[278] The 71 grs. avoir. given to the _miskal_ by Burton and Clarke (“Persian Handbook”) would make Babar’s large shot weigh 50 lbs.—an impossible weight, as every officer will admit who remembers our 18 Pr. S.B. bullock batteries in India. Babar could not have dragged 50 Prs. from Caubul to Panipat. Burton admits that the miskal “varies everywhere.” “Arab. Nights,” 1894, vii. 324. [279] _i.e._ two men’s wages for one day. See p. 205. [280] “Hindu Chemistry,” pp. 107-8. [281] Prof. R. K. Douglas, “China,” in _Ency. Brit._, v. 663. [282] “Gunpowder ... among the Chinese,” in _Journal of North China Branch of Roy. Asiatic Soc._, N.S. vi., 1869-70, p. 74, by W. F. Mayers, F.R.A.S., Chinese Consular Service. “Gunpowder came from the outer barbarians,” says the _Wuh-li-siao_, published in 1630. [283] Prof. H. A. Giles, “Hist. of Chinese Literature,” 1901, p. 4. [284] Mr. J. H. Middleton, “Pottery,” in _Ency. Brit._, xix. 633. [285] “Decline and Fall,” &c., iv. 231 _n_ (Bury’s ed.). [286] The Jesuits, “either seduced by some appearance of truth, or thinking it prudent to conciliate the people whom they were attempting to convert, adopted their marvellous relations regarding the antiquity of their science, and spread them over Europe.”—Mr. R. A. Proctor, “Astronomy,” _Ency. Brit._, ii. 746. [287] “Un bon exemple de la fascination exercée par un récit circonstancié est la légende des origines de la Ligue des trois cantons suisses primitifs (Gessler et les conjurés du Grütli) _fabriquée_ au XVI^e. siècle par Tschudi, devenue classique depuis le ‘Guillaume Tell’ de Schiller, et qu’on a eu tant de peine à extirper.” [288] _Introd. aux Études Historiques_, pp. 136-7. [289] _Mémoires concernant l’Hist., &c., des Chinois_, viii. 336. [290] In _Journal Asiatique_, Oct. 1849, p. 258. [291] In _Journal Asiatique_, Oct. 1849, P. 91. [292] Reinaud and Favé, in _Journal Asiátique_, Oct. 1849, p. 284 _n._ [293] Reinaud and Favé, in _Journal Asiatique_, Oct. 1849, p. 291. [294] As before, p. 91. [295] _Sur la Force des Matières Explosives_, ii. 354. [296] i. 48. [297] Howorth’s “Hist. of the Mongols,” iii. 97. [298] Reinaud and Favé, in _Journal Asiatique_, Oct. 1849, pp. 296, 308. [299] Romocki, i. 51. [300] This word, which Diez (_Etymolog. Wörterbuch_) derives from μάγγανον, betrays the western origin of the machine. It was well known in England:— “Set Mahound at the mangonel, and millstones throw.” —“Piers Plowman,” C text, _cir._ 1393, passus xxi. [301] Howorth, i. 125. [302] Yule, in “Marco Polo,” ii. 152. [303] “The Chinese,” &c., ii. 181. [304] Howorth, i. 129. [305] Mayers, p. 93. [306] Mayers, p. 93. [307] Ib., 94-5. [308] Reinaud and Favé, p. 254. [309] _Ency. Metropol._, art. “China,” p. 593. [310] Incarville, in Reinaud and Favé, p. 259.