[515] H. Moser, p. 156.
[516] It was regarded in Central Asia as a bird of ill omen, and nicknamed Kara-Kush, “black bird” (Vambéry, p. 394).
[517] The Kipchāks are a race of Turkish origin, who, according to Howorth (History of the Mongols, part ii.), settled on the south-eastern Russian steppes, in the tenth and eleventh centuries. They afterwards split up into hordes, the “Golden” and the “Eastern,” but were united under Tīmūr’s great antagonist, Tokhtamish Khān. When his power was shattered the Kipchāks dispersed over Central Asia, and large numbers found their way to Kokand, then styled by its present name, Farghāna.
[518] Vambéry, p. 395.
[519] H. Moser, A Travers l’Asie Centrale, p. 156.
[520] Born at Pelusum in Egypt, A.D. 70, and flourished under M. Antoninus and Hadrian.
[521] Our authority here is Jornandes, more properly styled Jordanes, who lived at Byzantium under Justinian II. His work, De Gothorum Origine et Rebus Gestis, is to be found in Muratori’s Rerum Italicarum Scriptores ab Anno 500 ad 1500, 27 vols. folio.
[522] The Grand Dukes of Mecklenburg claim a Wendish origin, and are officially styled “Princes of the Wends.”
[523] Slav, originally Slovene or Slovane, was, according to Miklositch, Vergleichende Grammatik den Slavischen Sprachen (Vienna, 1879), the tribal name of one of several Aryan clans, whose settlements stretched from the Arctic Ocean to the Ægæan Sea, from Kamskatka to the Elbe.
[524] “God” in Sanskrit is Bhagvan. Siva was the devoted wife of the demigod Rama, who is worshipped by Hindus with a fervour like that inspired by the Virgin Mary in Catholic lands.