the eastern than to the
western mind. So farther and farther to the east travelled the Arabs,
converting the uncivilised tribes that Christianity had not reached.

What a contrast are these Arabs to the explorers of the vigorous north.
They always travelled by land and not by that sea which was life to
the Viking folk. To the Arabs the encircling ocean was a very "Sea
of Darkness"; indeed, the unknown ocean beyond China was called the
"Sea of Pitchy Darkness." Their creed taught that the ocean was
boundless, so that ships dared not venture out of sight of land, for
there was no inhabited country beyond, and mariners would assuredly
be lost in mists and fogs. So, while the Vikings tossed fearlessly
about the wild northern seas, the Arab wayfarers rode eastward by
well-known caravan tracks, trading and teaching the ways of Mohammed.
Arabic enterprise had pushed on far beyond Ptolemy's world. The Arab
centre lay in the city of Bagdad, the headquarters of the ruler or
Khalif of the Mohammedan world. They had already opened up a
considerable trade with the rapidly rising Mongol Empire, which no
European had yet reached.

[Illustration: A KHALIF ON HIS THRONE. From the Ancona map, 1497.]

But as this country was to play a large part in the travels of the
near future, it will be interesting to hear the account given by two
Mohammedan friends who journeyed thither in the year 831, just four
hundred years before Marco Polo's famous account. The early part of
their story is missing, and we raise the curtain when they have arrived
in the land of China itself, then a very small empire compared with
what it is now.

"The Emperor of China reckons himself next after the King of the Arabs,
who they all allow to be the first and beyond all dispute the most
powerful of kings, because he is the head of a great religion. In this
great kingdom of China they tell us there are over two hundred cities;
each city has four gates, at each of which are five trumpets, which
the Chinese sound at certain hours of the day and of the night. There
are also within each city ten drums, which they beat at the same time
as a public token of their obedience to the Emperor, as also to signify
the hour of the day and of the night, to which end they also have dials
and clocks with weights.

"China is a pleasant and fruitful country; the air is much better than
the Indian provinces: much rain falls in both these countries. In India
are many desert tracts,