[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.

The Castle of Alamond, built on the confines of Persia, on the top of a high mountain surrounded with trees, after having been the usual residence of Hassan, became that of his successors.  As in the native language the same word means both prince and old man, the Crusaders who had heard the word pronounced confounded the two, and gave the name of Old Man of the Mountain to the Ishmaelian prince at that time inhabiting the Castle of Alamond, a name which has remained famous in history since the period when the Sire de Joinville published his “Memoires.”

Ancient authors call the subjects of Hassan, Haschichini, Heississini, Assissini, Assassini, various forms of the same expression, which, in fact, has passed into French with a signification which recalls the sanguinary exploits of the Ishmaelians.  In seeking for the etymology of this name, one must suppose that Haschichini is the Latin transformation of the Arabic word Hachychy, the name of the sect of which we are