Our guide and his companions were made drunk at the court, and very
little care was taken of us. Next morning the ends of my toes were so
frostbit by the extreme cold of the country, that I could no longer go
barefooted. From the time when the frost begins, it never ceases till May,
and even then it freezes every night and morning, but thaws with the heat
of the sun during the day. If they had much wind in that country during
winter, as we have, nothing could live there; but they have always mild
weather till April, and then the winds rise; and at that season, while we
were there, the cold rising with the wind, killed multitudes of animals. In
the winter little snow fell there; but about Easter, which was that year in
the latter end of April, there fell so great a snow, that the streets of
Caracarum were so full, it had to be carried out in carts.
[1] The country on the Onon and Kerlon, in Daouria, or the land of the
Tunguses. - Forst.
SECTION XXXII.
The Introduction of Rubruquis to Mangu-khan.
The people brought us from the court ram-skin coats, and breeches of the
same, with shoes, which my companion and interpreter accepted, but I
thought the fur garment which I brought from Baatu was sufficient for me.
On the 5th of January, we were brought to the court, and some Nestorian
priests, whom I did not know to be Christians, came and asked me which way
we worshipped; to which I said, that we worshipped to the east.
