From the Mongol era, a very elaborate water-clock,
provided with four copper basins embedded in brickwork, and rising in
steps one above the other. A cut of this courtyard, with its instruments
and aged trees, also ascribed to the Mongol time, will be found in ch.
xxxiii. (Atlas Sinensis, p. 10; Magaillans, 149-151; Chine Moderne,
p. 26; Tour du Monde for 1864, vol. ii. p. 34.)
NOTE 7. - "Nevertheless," adds the Ramusian, "there does exist I know not
what uneasiness about the people of Cathay."
[1] Mr. Wylie confirms my assumption: "Whilst in Peking I traced the old
mud wall,... and found it quite in accordance with the outline in your
map. Mr. Gilmour (a missionary to the Mongols) and I rode round it, he
taking the outside and I the inside.... Neither of us observed the
arch that Dr. Lockhart speaks of.... There are gate-openings about
the middle of the east and west sides, but no barbicans." (4th
December 1873.)
CHAPTER XII.
HOW THE GREAT KAAN MAINTAINS A GUARD OF TWELVE THOUSAND HORSE, WHICH ARE
CALLED KESHICAN.
You must know that the Great Kaan, to maintain his state, hath a guard of
twelve thousand horsemen, who are styled KESHICAN, which is as much as to
say "Knights devoted to their Lord." Not that he keeps these for fear of
any man whatever, but merely because of his own exalted dignity.
