To see the many people that are thronging to and fro
on every side and every day there, you would take the camp for a good big
city. For you must reckon the Leeches, and the Astrologers, and the
Falconers, and all the other attendants on so great a company; and add
that everybody there has his whole family with him, for such is their
custom.
The Lord remains encamped there until the spring, and all that time he
does nothing but go hawking round about among the canebrakes along the
lakes and rivers that abound in that region, and across fine plains on
which are plenty of cranes and swans, and all sorts of other fowl. The
other gentry of the camp also are never done with hunting and hawking, and
every day they bring home great store of venison and feathered game of all
sorts. Indeed, without having witnessed it, you would never believe what
quantities of game are taken, and what marvellous sport and diversion they
all have whilst they are in camp there.
There is another thing I should mention; to wit, that for 20 days' journey
round the spot nobody is allowed, be he who he may, to keep hawks or
hounds, though anywhere else whosoever list may keep them. And furthermore
throughout all the Emperor's territories, nobody however audacious dares
to hunt any of these four animals, to wit, hare, stag, buck, and roe, from
the month of March to the month of October. Anybody who should do so would
rue it bitterly. But those people are so obedient to their Lord's command,
that even if a man were to find one of those animals asleep by the
roadside he would not touch it for the world! And thus the game multiplies
at such a rate that the whole country swarms with it, and the Emperor gets
as much as he could desire. Beyond the term I have mentioned, however, to
wit that from March to October, everybody may take these animals as he
list.[NOTE 9]
After the Emperor has tarried in that place, enjoying his sport as I have
related, from March to the middle of May, he moves with all his people,
and returns straight to his capital city of Cambaluc (which is also the
capital of Cathay, as you have been told), but all the while continuing to
take his diversion in hunting and hawking as he goes along.
NOTE 1. - "Vait vers midi jusques a la Mer Occeane, ou il y a deux
journees." It is not possible in any way to reconcile this description as
it stands with truth, though I do not see much room for doubt as to the
direction of the excursion.
