Being Desired
To Sing A Psalm After Our Manner, We Chanted Veni Sancte Spiritus.
Then
the khan departed, but the lady remained, and distributed gifts to all the
Christians present.
She gave the monk Sergius a jascot, and another to the
archdeacon of the Nestorians, and she caused a nassic or large cloth like
a coverlet, and a buckram, to be spread out before us; and as I declined
the offer, she sent them to our interpreter, who sold the nassic at Cyprus,
for eighteen gold sultanies, though it was much the worse for the carriage.
Then red wine, like that of Rochelle, and caracina and cosmos were brought,
and the lady holding a cupful in her hand, desired a blessing on her knees,
and she drank it up, we and all the priests singing with a loud voice.
Another time, when they were mostly all drunk, the carcass of a sheep was
brought in and presently devoured, and then some large fishes, resembling
our carp, which they eat without bread or salt. And when the lady was
drunk, she took her chariot and went away, the priests singing all the
while. Next Sunday, the son of the khan, by a Christian mother, came to the
chapel and acted in a similar manner, but not with so much solemnity, and
only gave the priests to drink, and some parched millet to eat. Before the
first Sunday in Lent, the Nestorians fast three days, which they call the
fast of Jonas; and the Armenians fast five days in honour of St Lorkis,
their tutelary saint.
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