Sent him on an
ambassage of his, to a country which was a good six months' journey
distant.[NOTE 2] The young gallant executed his commission well and with
discretion. Now he had taken note on several occasions that when the
Prince's ambassadors returned from different parts of the world, they were
able to tell him about nothing except the business on which they had gone,
and that the Prince in consequence held them for no better than fools and
dolts, and would say: "I had far liever hearken about the strange things,
and the manners of the different countries you have seen, than merely be
told of the business you went upon;" - for he took great delight in hearing
of the affairs of strange countries. Mark therefore, as he went and
returned, took great pains to learn about all kinds of different matters
in the countries which he visited, in order to be able to tell about them
to the Great Kaan.[NOTE 3]
NOTE 1. - The word Emperor stands here for Seigneur.
What the four characters acquired by Marco were is open to discussion.
The Chronicle of the Mongol Emperors rendered by Gaubil mentions, as
characters used in their Empire, the Uighur, the Persian and Arabic, that
of the Lamas (Tibetan), that of the Niuche, introduced by the Kin Dynasty,
the Khitan, and the Bashpah character, a syllabic alphabet arranged, on
the basis of the Tibetan and Sanskrit letters chiefly, by a learned chief
Lama so-called, under the orders of Kublai, and established by edict in
1269 as the official character.
