In The Midst Of This Place, They Had Erected A Great And Very High Awning Of Cloth, Supported On Wooden

Pillars; at one end of which was an imperial canopy of state, erected on two richly varnished pillars, between which

Stood a great chair of state as if for the emperor, and other seats on both sides. The ambassadors were placed on the left hand of the imperial throne, arid the Kathayan officers on the right. Before each ambassador there were two tables, one of which was covered with various meats and fruits, and the other with cakes and delicate bread, ornamented with festoons of silk and paper. The other persons present had only one table to each. At the opposite end of this great banqueting tent, there stood a buffet or side-board, full of vessels of china and of silver, for serving the liquors. During the entertainment, they were regaled by a band of music, and a number of young persons, in strange dresses, performed various tricks for their amusement. They were likewise much amused by the performance of a comedy, the actors of which wore masks representing the faces of animals; and a child, inclosed in the body of an artificial stork, walked about and performed a variety of surprising motions. In short, nothing could be more magnificent.

Next day, being the seventeenth of Shaaban, they continued their journey through the desert, and arrived in a few days at a karaul[21] or strong fortress, in the mountains, which is built across the road in a pass or defile, so that travellers must necessarily enter by one gate and pass through the other. Here the ambassadors and all the members of their retinues were carefully numbered, and a new list made of all their names. From the karaul they went to Sekju or So-chew[22], where they were lodged in a large public building over the gate of the city; in which, as in all their other lodgings, they were amply provided with every necessary and convenience, as provisions, beds, and horses; and even the servants had mattresses and coverlets allowed for their beds. So-chew is a large and strong city, quite square, in the entrance into Kathay. It has sixteen market places, each fifty cubits square, which are always kept clean. In these there are several covered halls or galleries, having shops on both sides; and a handsome hall of entrance, adorned with pictures. There are hogs kept in every house, and the butchers hang their pork in the shambles along with the mutton[23]. The city wall is flanked with towers at every twenty paces distance; and there is a gate in the middle of each side, from each of which one may see the opposite gate, as the streets pass straight through the middle of the city, dividing it into four quarters. Over each gate there is a pavilion of two stories, the roof of which is tiled with porcelain, and is shaped like an asses back, or penthouse, according to the fashion of Kathay, which is likewise followed in Mazanderan.

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