S. Ament (_Marco Polo in Cambaluc_, 105) writes: "No name is
more execrated than that of Ah-ha-ma (called Achmath by Polo), a Persian,
who was chosen to manage the finances of the Empire. He was finally
destroyed by a combination against him while the Khan was absent with
Crown Prince Chen Chin, on a visit to Shang Tu." Achmath has his biography
under the name of _A-ho-ma_ (Ahmed) in the ch. 205 of the _Yuen-shi_,
under the rubric "Villanous Ministers." (_Bretschneider, Med. Res._ I.
p. 272.)--H. C.]

NOTE 3.--This term _Bailo_ was the designation of the representative of
Venetian dignity at Constantinople, called _Podesta_ during the period of
the Latin rule there, and it has endured throughout the Turkish Empire to
our own day in the form _Balios_ as the designation of a Frank Consul.
[There was also a Venetian _bailo_ in Syria.--H. C.] But that term itself
could scarcely have been in use at Cambaluc, even among the handful of
Franks, to designate the powerful Minister, and it looks as if Marco had
confounded the word in his own mind with some Oriental term of like sound,
possibly the Arabic _Wali_, "a Prince, Governor of a Province,... a chief
Magistrate." (_F. Johnson._) In the _Roteiro_ of the Voyage of Vasco da
Gama (2nd ed. Lisbon, 1861, pp. 53-54) it is said that on the arrival of
the ships at Calicut the King sent "a man who was called the _Bale_, which
is much the same as _Alquaide_." And the Editor gives the same explanation
that I have suggested.

I observe that according to Pandit Manphul the native governor of Kashgar,
under the Chinese Amban, used to be called the _Baili Beg_. [In this case
_Baili_ stands for _beileh_.--H. C.] (_Panjab Trade Report_, App.
p. cccxxxvii.)

NOTE 4.--The story, as related in De Mailla and Gaubil, is as follows. It
contains much less detail than the text, and it differs as to the manner
of the chief conspirator's death, whilst agreeing as to his name and the
main facts of the episode.

In the spring of 1282 (Gaubil, 1281) Kublai and Prince Chingkim had gone
off as usual to Shangtu, leaving Ahmad in charge at the Capital. The whole
country was at heart in revolt against his oppressions. Kublai alone knew,
or would know, nothing of them.

WANGCHU, a chief officer of the city, resolved to take the opportunity of
delivering the Empire from such a curse, and was joined in his enterprise
by a certain sorcerer called Kao Hoshang. They sent two Lamas to the
Council Board with a m