[Illustration: Fig. 317.--The Castle of Alamond and its
Enchantments.--Fac-simile of a Miniature in "Marco Polo's Travels,"
Manuscript of the Fifteenth. Century, in the Library of the Arsenal of
Paris.]
In his story, which we translate literally from the original, written in
ancient French, the venerable traveller attributes the origin of this
singular system of exercising power over the minds of persons to a prince
who in reality did but keep up a tradition of his family; for the Alaodin
herein mentioned is no other than a successor of the famous Hassan, son of
Ali, who, in the middle of the eleventh century, took advantage of the
wars which devastated Asia to create himself a kingdom, comprising the
three provinces of Turkistan, Djebel, and Syria. Hassan had embraced the
doctrine of the Ishmaelian sect, who pretended to explain allegorically
all the precepts of the Mahometan religion, and who did away with public
worship, and originated a creed which was altogether philosophical. He
made himself the chief exponent of this doctrine, which, by its very
simplicity, was sure to attract to him many people of simple and sincere
minds. Attacked by the troops of the Sultan Sindgar, he defended himself
vigorously and not unsuccessfully; but, fearing lest he should fall in an
unequal and protracted struggle against an adversary more powerful than
himself, he had recourse to cunning so as to obtain peace. He entranced,
or fascinated probably, by means analogous to those related by Marco Polo,
a slave, who had the daring, during Sindgar's sleep, to stick a sharp
dagger in the ground by the side of the Sultan's head. On waking, Sindgar
was much alarmed. A few days after, Hassan wrote to him, "If one had not
good intentions towards the Sultan, one might have driven the dagger,
which was stuck in the earth by his head, into his bosom." The Sultan
Sindgar then made peace with the chief of the Ishmaelians, whose dynasty
lasted for one hundred and seventy years.
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