No Dead Body Is
Allowed To Be Burnt Or Buried Within The City; But The Bodies Of The
Idolaters Are Burned Without The Suburbs, And The Bodies Of All Other Sects
Are Buried In The Same Places.
On account of the vast multitude of
Mahometans who inhabit here, there are above 25,000 harlots in the city and
suburbs:
Over every 100 and every 1000 of these, there are chiefs or
captains appointed, to keep them in order, and one general inspector over
the whole. When any ambassador or other person, having business with the
khan, comes to Cambalu, his whole charges are defrayed from the imperial
treasury, and the general inspector of the harlots provides the ambassador,
and every man of his family, a change of women every night at free cost.
The guards of the city carry all whom they may find walking in the streets,
after the appointed hour, to prison; and it these persons cannot give a
valid excuse, they are beaten with cudgels, as the Bachsi allege that it is
not right to shed mens blood; yet many persons die of this beating.
There are 12,000 horse-guards, called Casitan, who attend on the person of
the khan, more from state than from any suspicion of danger. These have
four chief commanders, one to every 3000 men; and one commander, with his
band of 3000, keeps guard over the khan for three days and nights, after
which he is succeeded by another, and so on in regular order.
When the khan holds a solemn court on any particular day of festival, his
table is raised higher than all the rest, and is set on the north side of
the hall, having his face to the south, his first queen or principal wife
being placed on his left hand, and his sons and nephews, and other princes
of the blood-royal being arranged on his right; but their table is placed
so much lower, that their heads are hardly so high as the khans feet. The
princes and other lords of the court sit lower still on the right hand; and
the ladies being all placed in similar order on the left, those of the sons
and kinsmen of the khan being next to the queen, and after these, the wives
of the lords and officers, each according to their several ranks, in due
order. By this means the khan, as he sits at table, can see all that feast
along with him in the hall. There are not tables for all who are admitted
to the feast, but the greatest part of the soldiers and captains sit down
on carpets, where they are served with victuals and drink. At all the doors
there are two gigantic fellows with cudgels, who observe carefully if any
one touches the threshold in going in; and whoever does so, forfeits his
garment, or receives a certain number of blows of a cudgel. Those who serve
the khan, or who sit at his table, have their mouths covered with silken
veils, lest their breath should touch the meat or drink which he is to use.
When he drinks, the damsel who carries the cup kneels down, and then all
the barons and others present kneel likewise, and all the musicians sound
their instruments, till the khan has done drinking.
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