Immediately Behind The Great Tent There Is A
Fine Large Chamber Where The Lord Sleeps; And There Are Also Many Other
Tents And Chambers, But They Are Not In Contact With The Great Tent As
These Are.
The two audience-tents and the sleeping-chamber are constructed
in this way.
Each of the audience-tents has three poles, which are of
spice-wood, and are most artfully covered with lions' skins, striped with
black and white and red, so that they do not suffer from any weather. All
three apartments are also covered outside with similar skins of striped
lions, a substance that lasts for ever.[NOTE 7] And inside they are all
lined with ermine and sable, these two being the finest and most costly
furs in existence. For a robe of sable, large enough to line a mantle, is
worth 2000 bezants of gold, or 1000 at least, and this kind of skin is
called by the Tartars "The King of Furs." The beast itself is about the
size of a marten.[NOTE 8] These two furs of which I speak are applied and
inlaid so exquisitely, that it is really something worth seeing. All the
tent-ropes are of silk. And in short I may say that those tents, to wit
the two audience-halls and the sleeping-chamber, are so costly that it is
not every king could pay for them.
Round about these tents are others, also fine ones and beautifully
pitched, in which are the Emperor's ladies, and the ladies of the other
princes and officers.
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