older texts the more modern and incorrect _Balsora_, dear to memories
of the Arabian Nights; among the provinces of Persia we have _Spaan_
(Ispahan) where older texts read _Istanit_; for _Cormos_ we have
_Ormus_; for _Herminia_ and _Laias_, _Armenia_ and _Giazza_; _Coulam_
for the older _Coilum_; _Socotera_ for _Scotra_. With these changes may
be classed the chapter-headings, which are undisguisedly modern, and
probably Ramusio’s own. In some other cases this editorial spirit has
been over-meddlesome and has gone astray. Thus _Malabar_ is substituted
wrongly for _Maabar_ in one place, and by a grosser error for _Dalivar_
in another. The age of young Marco, at the time of his father’s first
return to Venice, has been arbitrarily altered from 15 to 19, in
order to correspond with a date which is itself erroneous. Thus also
Polo is made to describe Ormus as on an Island, contrary to the old
texts and to the fact; for the city of Hormuz was not transferred to
the island, afterwards so famous, till some years after Polo’s return
from the East. It is probably also the editor who in the notice of
the oil-springs of Caucasus (i. p. 46) has substituted _camel-loads_
for _ship-loads_, in ignorance that the site of those alluded to was
probably Baku on the Caspian.
Other erroneous statements, such as the introduction of window-glass as
one of the embellishments of the palace at Cambaluc, are probably due
only to accidental misunderstanding.
[Sidenote: Genuine statements peculiar to Ramusio.]