NOTE 4.—From Baudas, or Baldac, _i.e._ Baghdad, certain of these rich silk and gold brocades were called _Baldachini_, or in English _Baudekins_. From their use in the state canopies and umbrellas of Italian dignitaries, the word _Baldacchino_ has come to mean a canopy, even when architectural. [_Baldekino, baldacchino_, was at first entirely made of silk, but afterwards silk was mixed (_sericum mixtum_) with cotton or thread. When Hulaku conquered Baghdad part of the tribute was to be paid with that kind of stuff. Later on, says Heyd (II. p. 697), it was also manufactured in the province of Ahwaz, at Damas and at Cyprus; it was carried as far as France and England. Among the articles sent from Baghdad to Okkodai Khan, mentioned in the _Yüan ch’ao pi shi_ (made in the 14th century), quoted by Bretschneider (_Med. Res._ II. p. 124), we note: _Nakhut_ (a kind of gold brocade), _Nachidut_ (a silk stuff interwoven with gold), _Dardas_ (a stuff embroidered in gold). Bretschneider (p. 125) adds: “With respect to _nakhut_ and _nachidut_, I may observe that these words represent the Mongol plural form of _nakh_ and _nachetti_.... I may finally mention that in the _Yüan shi_, ch. lxxviii. (on official dresses), a stuff, _na-shi-shi_, is repeatedly named, and the term is explained there by _kin kin_ (gold brocade).”—H. C.] The stuffs called _Nasich_ and _Nac_ are again mentioned by our traveller below (ch. lix.). We only know that they were of silk and gold, as he implies here, and as Ibn Batuta tells us, who mentions _Nakh_ several times and _Nasíj_ once. The latter is also mentioned by Rubruquis (_Nasic_) as a present made to him at the Kaan’s court. And Pegolotti speaks of both _nacchi_ and _nacchetti_ of silk and gold, the latter apparently answering to _Nasich_. _Nac, Nacques, Nachiz, Nacíz, Nasís_, appear in accounts and inventories of the 14th century, French and English. (See _Dictionnaire des Tissus_, II. 199, and _Douet d’Arcq, Comptes de l’Argenterie des Rois de France_, etc., 334.) We find no mention of _Nakh_ or _Nasíj_ among the stuffs detailed in the _Aín Akbari_, so they must have been obsolete in the 16th century. [Cf. Heyd, _Com. du Levant_, II. p. 698; _Nacco_, nachetto, comes from the Arabic _nakh_ (_nekh_); _nassit_ (_nasith_) from the Arabic _nécidj_.—H. C.] _Quermesis_ or Cramoisy derived its name from the Kermes insect (Ar. _Kirmiz_) found on _Quercus coccifera_, now supplanted by cochineal. The stuff so called is believed to have been originally a crimson velvet, but apparently, like the mediæval _Purpura_, if not identical with it, it came to indicate a tissue rather than a colour. Thus Fr.-Michel quotes velvet of vermeil cramoisy, of violet, and of blue cramoisy, and _pourpres_ of a variety of colours, though he says he has never met with _pourpre blanche_. I may, however, point to Plano Carpini (p.