[4] [Merged into the notes of the present edition.—H. C.] [5] See page xxix. [6] Writing in Italy, perhaps I ought to write, according to too prevalent modern Italian custom, _Polo Marco_. I have already _seen_, and in the work of a writer of reputation, the Alexandrian geographer styled _Tolomeo Claudio_! and if this preposterous fashion should continue to spread, we shall in time have _Tasso Torquato_, _Jonson Ben_, Africa explored by _Park Mungo_, Asia conquered by _Lane Tamer_, Copperfield David by _Dickens Charles_, Homer Englished by _Pope Alexander_, and the Roman history done into French from the original of _Live Tite_! [7] Introduction p. _24_, and _passim_ in the notes. [8] _Ibid._, p. _112_. [9] See Introduction, pp. _51_, _57_. [10] See Title of present volumes. [11] Which quite agrees with the story of the document quoted at p. _77_ of Introduction. [12] Vol. i. p. 64, and p. 67. [13] _I.e._ 1306; see Introduction, pp. _68–69_. [14] The form which Marco gives to this word was probably a reminiscence of the Oriental corruption _failsúf_. It recalls to my mind a Hindu who was very fond of the word, and especially of applying it to certain of his fellow-servants. But as he used it, _bara failsúf_,—“great philosopher”—meant exactly the same as the modern slang “_Artful Dodger_”! [15] See for the explanation of _Karma_, “the power that controls the universe,” in the doctrine of atheistic Buddhism, Hardy’s _Eastern Monachism_, p. 5. [16] Vol. ii. p. 316 (see also i. 348). [17] Vol. ii. pp. 318–319. ORIGINAL PREFACE. The amount of appropriate material, and of acquaintance with the mediæval geography of some parts of Asia, which was acquired during the compilation of a work of kindred character for the Hakluyt Society,[1] could hardly fail to suggest as a fresh labour in the same field the preparation of a new English edition of Marco Polo. Indeed one kindly critic (in the _Examiner_) laid it upon the writer as a duty to undertake that task.