And It Behoveth, That Anon At The First
Sight That Men See The Soldan, Be It In Window Or In
What place
else, that men kneel to him and kiss the earth, for that is the
manner to do reverence
To the soldan of them that speak with him.
And when that messengers of strange countries come before him, the
meinie of the soldan, when the strangers speak to him, they be
about the soldan with swords drawn and gisarmes and axes, their
arms lifted up in high with those weapons for to smite upon them,
if they say any word that is displeasance to the soldan. And also,
no stranger cometh before him, but that he maketh him some promise
and grant of that the [stranger] asketh reasonably; by so it be not
against his law. And so do other princes beyond, for they say that
no man shall come before no prince, but that [he be] better, and
shall be more gladder in departing from his presence than he was at
the coming before him.
And understandeth, that that Babylon that I have spoken of, where
that the sultan dwelleth, is not that great Babylon where the
diversity of languages was first made for vengeance by the miracle
of God, when the great Tower of Babel was begun to be made; of the
which the walls were sixty-four furlongs of height; that is in the
great desert of Arabia, upon the way as men go toward the kingdom
of Chaldea.
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