It Is The Custom Of This Emperor Never To Converse Himself With Any
Stranger, However High His Rank, But Always To Hear, As It Were, And To
Answer Through An Intermediate Person:
Whoever proposes any matter to his
consideration, or listens to his reply, however great his quality, must
remain on his knees the whole time; and no one must presume to speak on any
subject after the determination of the emperor is expressed.
For the
dispatch of affairs, both public and private, he has agents, secretaries,
scribes, and officers of all kinds, excepting pleaders; as every thing is
concluded according to his will and pleasure, without strife or judicial
noise: and the other princes of the Tartars act exactly in the same manner.
While we remained at his court, the emperor and all his princes erected a
standard of defiance against the church of God, the Roman empire, and all
the Christian kingdoms and nations of the west, unless they should become
obedient to his commands. Their avowed intention is to subdue the whole
earth under their authority, as they were commanded by Zingis-khan, and
they have only abstained from this intention of late, on account of the
death of Occaday-khan, the emperor's father, who was poisoned. Of all the
nations under heaven, they are in some fear of the Christians only, and on
this account they are now preparing to make war on us. In all his letters
their emperor styles himself the Power of God and the Emperor of Mankind;
and the seal of the present emperor is thus inscribed:
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