Van
Braam met six going into Peking, sent thither from Yun-Nan." These were no
doubt carrying tribute from Burmah. - H. C.] It is worth noticing that the
housings of cut cloth or applique work ("draps entaillez") are still
in fashion in India for the caparison of elephants.
NOTE 4. - In 1263 Kublai adopted the Chinese fashion of worshipping the
tablets of his own ancestors, and probably at the same time the adoration
of his own tablet by his subjects was introduced. Van Braam ingenuously
relates how he and the rest of the Dutch Legation of 1794 performed the
adoration of the Emperor's Tablet on first entering China, much in the way
described in the text.
There is a remarkable amplification in the last paragraph of the chapter
as given by Ramusio: "When all are in their proper places, a certain great
personage, or high prelate as it were, gets up and says with a loud voice:
'Bow yourselves and adore!' On this immediately all bend and bow the
forehead to the ground. Then the prelate says again: 'God save and keep
our Lord the Emperor, with length of years and with mirth and happiness.'
And all answer: 'So may it be!' And then again the prelate says: 'May God
increase and augment his Empire and its prosperity more and more, and keep
all his subjects in peace and goodwill, and may all things go well
throughout his Dominion!' And all again respond: 'So may it be!' And this
adoration is repeated four times."
One of Pauthier's most interesting notes is a long extract from the
official Directory of Ceremonial under the Mongol Dynasty, which admirably
illustrates the chapters we have last read. I borrow a passage regarding
this adoration: "The Musician's Song having ceased, the Ministers shall
recite with a loud voice the following Prayer: 'Great Heaven, that
extendest over all! Earth which art under the guidance of Heaven! We
invoke You and beseech You to heap blessings upon the Emperor and the
Empress! Grant that they may live ten thousand, a hundred thousand years!'
"Then the first Chamberlain shall respond: 'May it be as the prayer hath
said!' The Ministers shall then prostrate themselves, and when they rise
return to their places, and take a cup or two of wine."
The K'o-tow (Kheu-theu) which appears repeatedly in this ceremonial and
which in our text is indicated by the four prostrations, was, Pauthier
alleges, not properly a Chinese form, but only introduced by the Mongols.
Baber indeed speaks of it as the Kornish, a Moghul ceremony, in which
originally "the person who performed it kneeled nine times and touched the
earth with his brow each time." He describes it as performed very
elaborately (nine times twice) by his younger uncle in visiting the
elder.
