t has no
place, except as belonging to Turkish history, because it was contained
within the limits of Asia, and, though it lasted for 200 years, it only
faintly affected the political transactions of Europe. However, it was
not without some sort of influence on Christendom, for the Romans
interchanged embassies with its sovereign in the reign of the then
Greek Emperor Justin the younger (A.D. 570), with the view of engaging
him in a warlike alliance against Persia. The account of one of these
embassies remains, and the picture it presents of the Turks is
important, because it seems clearly to identify them with the Tartar
race.

For instance, in the mission to the Tartars from the Pope, which I have
already spoken of, the friars were led between two fires, when they
approached the Khan, and they at first refused to follow, thinking they
might be countenancing some magical rite. Now we find it recorded of
this Roman embassy, that, on its arrival, it was purified by the Turks
with fire and incense. As to incense, which seems out of place among
such barbarians, it is remarkable that it is used in the ceremonial of
the Turkish court to this day. At least Sir Charles Fellows, in his work
on the Antiquities of Asia Minor, in 1838, speaks of the Sultan as going
to the festival of Bairam with incense-bearers before him. Again, when
the Romans were presented to the great Khan, they found him in his tent,
seated on a throne, to which wheels were attached and horses attachable,
in other words, a Tartar waggon. Moreover, they were entertained at a
banquet which lasted the greater part of the day; and an intoxicating
liquor, not wine, which was sweet and pleasant, was freely presented to
them; evidently the Tartar _koumiss_.[15] The next day they had a second
entertainment in a still more splendid tent; the hangings were of
embroidered silk, and the throne, the cups, and the vases were of gold.
On the third day, the pavilion, in which they were received, was
supported on gilt columns; a couch of massive gold was raised on four
gold peacocks; and before the entrance to the tent was what might be
called a sideboard, only that it was a sort of barricade of waggons,
laden with dishes, basins, and statues of solid silver. All these points
in the description,--the silk hangings, the gold vessels, the
successively increasing splendour of the entertainments,--remind us of
the courts of Zingis and Timour, 700 and 900 years afterwards.

Thi