382-383.) The
same passage, apparently, of Avicenna is quoted by Vincent of Beauvais,
but with considerable differences. (See Speculum Naturale, VII. ch. lii.
lx., and Specul. Doctrinale, XV. ch. lxiii.) The latter author writes
Alidena, and I have not been able to refer to Avicenna, so that I am
doubtful whether his Andena is the same term with the Andaine of
Pauthier and our Ondanique.
The popular view, at least in the Middle Ages, seems to have regarded
Steel as a distinct natural species, the product of a necessarily
different ore, from iron; and some such view is, I suspect, still common
in the East. An old Indian officer told me of the reply of a native friend
to whom he had tried to explain the conversion of iron into steel - "What!
You would have me believe that if I put an ass into the furnace it will
come forth a horse." And Indian Steel again seems to have been regarded as
a distinct natural species from ordinary steel. It is in fact made by a
peculiar but simple process, by which the iron is converted directly
into cast-steel, without passing through any intermediate stage analogous
to that of blister-steel. When specimens were first examined in England,
chemists concluded that the steel was made direct from the ore. The
Ondanique of Marco no doubt was a fine steel resembling the Indian
article. (Mueller's Ctesias, p. 80; Curtius, IX. 24; Mueller's Geog.
Gr. Min. I. 262; Digest. Novum, Lugd. 1551, Lib. XXXIX. Tit. 4;
Salmas. Ex. Plinian. II. 763; Edrisi, I. 65-66; J. R. S. A. A. 387
seqq.; Hamasae Carmina, I. 526; Elliot, II. 209, 394; Reynolds's
Utbi, p. 216.)
[Illustration: Texture, with Animals, etc., from a Cashmere Scarf in the
Indian Museum.
"De deverses maineres labores a bestes et ausiaus mout richement."]
NOTE 4. - Paulus Jovius in the 16th century says, I know not on what
authority, that Kerman was then celebrated for the fine temper of its
steel in scimitars and lance-points. These were eagerly bought at high
prices by the Turks, and their quality was such that one blow of a Kerman
sabre would cleave an European helmet without turning the edge. And I see
that the phrase, "Kermani blade" is used in poetry by Marco's contemporary
Amir Khusru of Delhi. (P. Jov. Hist. of his own Time, Bk. XIV.;
Elliot, III. 537.)
There is, or was in Pottinger's time, still a great manufacture of
matchlocks at Kerman; but rose-water, shawls, and carpets are the
staples of the place now. Polo says nothing that points to shawl-making,
but it would seem from Edrisi that some such manufacture already existed
in the adjoining district of Bamm. It is possible that the "hangings"
spoken of by Polo may refer to the carpets. I have seen a genuine Kerman
carpet in the house of my friend, Sir Bartle Frere.
