The Other Persons Present Had Only One Table To
Each.
At the opposite end of this great banqueting tent, there stood a
buffet or side-board, full of vessels of china and of silver, for serving
the liquors.
During the entertainment, they were regaled by a band of
music, and a number of young persons, in strange dresses, performed various
tricks for their amusement. They were likewise much amused by the
performance of a comedy, the actors of which wore masks representing the
faces of animals; and a child, inclosed in the body of an artificial stork,
walked about and performed a variety of surprising motions. In short,
nothing could be more magnificent.
Next day, being the seventeenth of Shaaban, they continued their journey
through the desert, and arrived in a few days at a karaul[21] or strong
fortress, in the mountains, which is built across the road in a pass or
defile, so that travellers must necessarily enter by one gate and pass
through the other. Here the ambassadors and all the members of their
retinues were carefully numbered, and a new list made of all their names.
From the karaul they went to Sekju or So-chew[22], where they were lodged
in a large public building over the gate of the city; in which, as in all
their other lodgings, they were amply provided with every necessary and
convenience, as provisions, beds, and horses; and even the servants had
mattresses and coverlets allowed for their beds. So-chew is a large and
strong city, quite square, in the entrance into Kathay. It has sixteen
market places, each fifty cubits square, which are always kept clean. In
these there are several covered halls or galleries, having shops on both
sides; and a handsome hall of entrance, adorned with pictures. There are
hogs kept in every house, and the butchers hang their pork in the shambles
along with the mutton[23]. The city wall is flanked with towers at every
twenty paces distance; and there is a gate in the middle of each side, from
each of which one may see the opposite gate, as the streets pass straight
through the middle of the city, dividing it into four quarters. Over each
gate there is a pavilion of two stories, the roof of which is tiled with
porcelain, and is shaped like an asses back, or penthouse, according to the
fashion of Kathay, which is likewise followed in Mazanderan. Each of the
temples in this place occupy nearly ten arpents of ground, and all are very
neat, with their brick pavements polished like glass. At the gates there
stand a number of fine youths, who, after regaling strangers, show them the
temples.
From So-chew it is ninety-five days journey to Cambalu, or Khanbalek, where
the emperor resides, the whole way leading, through a populous country,
insomuch that travellers always lodge at night in a large town. Throughout
the whole way there are many structures named Kargu, and Kidifu. The former
are a species of corps-de-garde, which are sixty cubits high, and are built
within sight of each other, having always persons on guard, who are
relieved every ten days. These are intended to communicate alarms speedily
to the seat of government, which they do by means of fires; and
intelligence can be sent, in this manner, in the space of a day and a
night, from the distance of three months journey[24]. The Kidifus are a
kind of post-houses, which are built at ten merres[25] from each other,
having fixed establishments of people, with houses to live in, and ground
to cultivate for their support; and all letters to the imperial city are
sent by couriers from one to another. From Sakju, or So-chew, to Kamju[26],
there are nine stages or days journey, and the dankji who resides in
Kan-chew is superior to all the other governors on the frontiers. At each
stage the ambassadors were furnished with 450 horses, mules, and asses, and
fifty-six chariots or waggons. The servants who tended the horses were
called Ba-fu; the muleteers, who had charge of the mules and the
asses,Lu-fu; and the men who drew the chariots, Jip-fu. These chariots
were each drawn by twelve young men with cords on their shoulders, and they
dragged through all difficulties from one lodging to another, the Ba-fu
always running before as guides. At all the lodging places, where the
ambassadors and their retinue stopped nightly, provisions were always found
in abundance. At every city the ambassadors were feasted in a hall set
apart for that special purpose, called Rasun, in each of which there
stood an imperial throne under a canopy, with curtains at the sides, the
throne always facing towards the capital of the empire. At the foot of the
throne there always was a great carpet, on which the ambassadors sat,
having their people ranked in regular rows behind them, like the Moslems at
their prayers. When all were properly arranged, a guard beside the throne
gave a signal, by calling out aloud three times; on which all the Kathayan
officers bowed their heads to the ground towards the throne, and obliged
the ambassadors to make a similar reverence; after which every one sate
down to his appointed table.
On the twenty-fifth of Ramazan, the dankji, or governor of Kan-chew invited
the ambassadors to a feast, intimating that they were to consider it as a
banquet given them by the emperor; but as it was the fast of the Moslems,
the ambassadors sent an apology, yet he sent them all the victuals which
had been prepared for the entertainment. In Kanchew they saw a temple, each
side of which extended 500 kes or cubits, having in the middle of it an
idol fifty feet in length, lying as if asleep. The hands and feet of this
gigantic idol were nine feet long, and the head was twenty-one feet round.
There were numbers of smaller idols, each a cubit high, behind this large
one and above his head, in such natural attitudes that they seemed alive.
The great idol was gilt all over, having one hand under his head, and the
other stretched down along his thigh.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 197 of 217
Words from 200822 to 201876
of 222093
