Horses, particular paizah (which Hammer says
were of brass) are appointed, on which their names are inscribed." These
last would seem therefore to be merely such permissions to travel by the
Government post-horses as are still required in Russia, perhaps in lineal
derivation from Mongol practice. The terms of Ghazan's decree and other
contemporary notices show that great abuses were practised with the Paizah,
as an authority for living at free quarters and making other arbitrary
exactions.
[Illustration: "TABLE D'OR DE COMMANDEMENT," THE PAIZA OF THE MONGOLS.
FROM A SPECIMEN FOUND IN E. SIBERIA.]
The word Paizah is said to be Chinese, Pai-tseu, "a tablet." A trace
of the name and the thing still survives in Mongolia. The horse-Bai is
the name applied to a certain ornament on the horse caparison, which gives
the rider a title to be furnished with horses and provisions on a journey.
[Illustration: Second Example of a MONGOL PAIZA, with Superscription in
the Uighur Character, found near the River Dnieper, 1845.]
Where I have used the Venetian term saggio, the French texts have here
and elsewhere saics and saies, and sometimes pois. Saic points to
saiga, which, according to Dupre de St. Maur, is in the Salic laws the
equivalent of a denier or the twelfth part of a sol.
