Being Satisfied With This
Apology, The Emperor Called For A Shaker, Which He Let Fly At A Crane; But
On The Bird Returning, Without Seizing His Prey, The Emperor Gave It Three
Strokes On The Head.
He then alighted from his horse, and sat down in a
chair, resting his feet on another, and gave a shaker to Soltan Shah, and
another to Soltan Ahmed, but none to Shadi Khoja.
After this he mounted his
horse, and as he approached towards the city, was received by vast crowds
of people with a thousand acclamations.
On the fourth of the before named month, the ambassadors were brought to
court to receive their presents from the emperor; who was seated on his
throne, and caused tables to be set before him, on which the presents were
displayed. These were much of the same nature with those already mentioned,
which were given to Soltan Shah, and Bakshi Malek. Sometime afterwards, the
most beloved of the emperor's wives died, and her death was made public on
the eighth day of the month Jomada-al-awake, the next day being appointed
for her interment. The ladies belonging to the imperial family are buried,
on a certain mountain, on which all the horses that belonged to them are
turned out to graze at liberty for the rest of their lives. At the same
time, several maidens and Khojas of the palace, who had belonged to the
retinue of the deceased, are placed in attendance on the grave, having
provisions allowed them to subsist upon for live years, perhaps more; and
when their victuals are expended, they are permitted to die of famine. But
on the ensuing night, the new palace took fire, not without suspicion of
the astrologers haying a hand in it. By this misfortune, the principal
apartment, which was eighty cubits long, and thirty cubits broad, adorned
with pillars, painted blue, and richly varnished, so large that three men
could hardly grasp them, was entirely consumed. From thence, the flames
communicated to a kiosk or gallery of twenty fathoms, and to the apartment
of the ladies, which was still more magnificent. By this fire, 250 houses
were destroyed, and several men and women lost their lives[6]. The emperor
and his Amirs did not consider that this chastisement fell upon them for
being infidels. On the contrary, the emperor went to an idol temple[7],
where he said on his knees, "The GOD of Heaven is angry with me, and
therefore hath burned my palace. Yet have I done no evil; for I have
neither offended my father nor my mother, nor can I be charged with the
exercise of any tyranny on my people."
The emperor was so deeply affected by these untoward circumstances, that he
fell sick, and the prince his son assumed the administration of the
government, and gave the ambassadors an audience of leave[8]; after which,
they received no farther subsistence from the court, till their departure.
They left Kham-balik on the fifteenth of the month Jomada-al-awal,
accompanied by certain dajis from the court; and they were lodged and
treated with all necessaries on their return, in the same manner as they
had been on their journey to court. They arrived on the first of Rajeb at
the city of Nikian[9], where the magistrates came out to meet them, but
did not search their baggage, as is customary there, as they had an express
order from the emperor to the contrary. On the day after their arrival at
that place, they were magnificently feasted. On the fifth of Shaaban,
thirty-five days afterwards, they reached the river Karamuran, Whang-ho, or
Hoang-ho; and on the twenty-fifth of that month arrived at Kamju[10], where
they had left their servants, and heavy baggage; where every thing that
they had committed to the custody of the Kathayan officers, when on their
journey to the capital, was faithfully restored. After remaining
seventy-five days in this place, they resumed their journey, and came soon
afterwards to Nang-tschieu, or Nang-chew[11]. At this place, or rather at
Sa-chew, they met with ambassadors from Ispahan and Shiras in Persia, on
their way to Khambalik, who told them that they had met with many
difficulties on their journey.
As the roads through the country of the Mongals were very unsafe, owing to
confusions and civil wars among the hordes, they remained ten months at
So-chew, whence they set out at full moon in the month of Moharram, of the
year 825 of the Hegira[12], and came in a few days to the Karaul at the
pass leading into the desert, where their baggage was searched. Leaving
this place on the nineteenth of Moharram, on purpose to avoid the obstacles
and dangers they were likely to encounter, on account of intestine war
among the tribes of the Mongals, they took the road through the desert[13],
where they suffered much distress on account of the scarcity of water. They
got out from the desert on the sixteenth of Rabiya-al-awal, and arrived at
the city of Khoten[14] on the ninth of Jomada-al-akher. Continuing their
journey from thence, they came to the city of Kashgar[15] on the sixth of
Rajeb. On the twenty-first of the same month, the ambassadors separated a
little way beyond the city of Endkoien[16], some taking the road towards
Samarkand, and the rest directing their way for Badakshan. Those of Shah
Rokh arrived at the castle of Shadman on the twenty-first of Shaaban; at
Balkh on the first of Ramazan; and on the tenth of that month at Herat, the
residence of their sovereign.
[1] Shankars, Shonkers, or Shongars, are birds of prey, famous among the
Tartars, and may probably have been the most esteemed species of
falcon, and which are said to have been white. - Astl.
[2] These silver balishes seem to have come in place of the paper money
of the emperors of the race of Zingis, formerly mentioned; but its
value is nowhere described.
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