For When Shah Rukh's Ambassadors Were Present At The New
Year's Feast At The Court Of The Succeeding Chinese Dynasty (2nd
February, 1421) They Were Warned That No One Must Wear White, As That
Among The Chinese Was The Colour Of Mourning.
(Koeppen, I. 574, II.
309;
Cathay, p. ccvii.)
NOTE 2. - On the mystic importance attached to the number 9 on all such
occasions among the Mongols, see Hammer's Golden Horde, p. 208;
Hayton, ch. iii. in Ramusio II.; Not. et Ext. XIV. Pt. I. 32; and
Strahlenberg (II. 210 of Amsterd. ed. 1757). Vambery, speaking of the
Kalin or marriage price among the Uzbegs, says: "The question is always
how many times nine sheep, cows, camels, or horses, or how many times
nine ducats (as is the custom in a town), the father is to receive for
giving up his daughter." (Sketches of Cent. Asia, p. 103.) Sheikh
Ibrahim of Darband, making offerings to Timur, presented nines of
everything else, but of slaves eight only. "Where is the ninth?"
enquired the court official. "Who but I myself?" said the Sheikh, and so
won the heart of Timur. (A. Arabsiadis ... Timuri Hist. p. 357.)
NOTE 3. - The elephant stud of the Son of Heaven had dwindled till in 1862
Dr. Rennie found but one animal; now none remain. [Dr. S. W. Williams
writes (Middle Kingdom, I. pp. 323-324): "Elephants are kept at Peking
for show, and are used to draw the state chariot when the Emperor goes to
worship at the Altars of Heaven and Earth, but the sixty animals seen in
the days of Kienlung, by Bell, have since dwindled to one or two.
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