His complexion is white and red, the
eyes black and fine,[NOTE 1] the nose well formed and well set on. He has
four wives, whom he retains permanently as his legitimate consorts; and
the eldest of his sons by those four wives ought by rights to be
emperor; - I mean when his father dies. Those four ladies are called
empresses, but each is distinguished also by her proper name. And each of
them has a special court of her own, very grand and ample; no one of them
having fewer than 300 fair and charming damsels. They have also many pages
and eunuchs, and a number of other attendants of both sexes; so that each
of these ladies has not less than 10,000 persons attached to her
court.[NOTE 2]
When the Emperor desires the society of one of these four consorts, he
will sometimes send for the lady to his apartment and sometimes visit her
at her own. He has also a great number of concubines, and I will tell you
how he obtains them.
You must know that there is a tribe of Tartars called UNGRAT, who are
noted for their beauty. Now every year an hundred of the most beautiful
maidens of this tribe are sent to the Great Kaan, who commits them to the
charge of certain elderly ladies dwelling in his palace. And these old
ladies make the girls sleep with them, in order to ascertain if they have
sweet breath [and do not snore], and are sound in all their limbs. Then
such of them as are of approved beauty, and are good and sound in all
respects, are appointed to attend on the Emperor by turns. Thus six of
these damsels take their turn for three days and nights, and wait on him
when he is in his chamber and when he is in his bed, to serve him in any
way, and to be entirely at his orders. At the end of the three days and
nights they are relieved by other six. And so throughout the year, there
are reliefs of maidens by six and six, changing every three days and
nights.[NOTE 3]
[Illustration: Portrait of Kublai Kaan. (From a Chinese Engraving.)]
NOTE 1. - We are left in some doubt as to the colour of Kublai's eyes, for
some of the MSS. read vairs and voirs, and others noirs. The former
is a very common epithet for eyes in the mediaeval romances. And in the
ballad on the death of St. Lewis, we are told of his son Tristram: -
"Droiz fu comme un rosel, iex vairs comme faucon,
Des le tens Moysel ne nasqui sa facon."
The word has generally been interpreted bluish-grey, but in the passage
just quoted, Fr.-Michel explains it by brillans. However, the evidence
for noirs here seems strongest.
