It Is Placed With Its Entrance To The South, Supported Upon Curiously Carved Pillars, And Is Covered On The Outside With The Skins Of Lions And Other Wild Beasts, To Keep Out The Rain; But The Whole Inside Is Lined With Sables And Ermines, To An Immense Value.

For so precious are these skins esteemed, that a sufficient number to make one garment only will sometimes cost 2000 gold sultanies, and the Tartars call the sable the queen of furs.

All the cords of the imperial pavilions are of silk. Around this there are other pavilions for the sons, wives, and concubines of the khan. At a farther distance there are tents for the falcons, ger-falcons, hawks, and other birds of game; and the whole encampment seems at a distance like a great city, or the station of a large army. The khan remains all the month of March in that plain, employed in hawking; and the multitude of beasts and fowls which are taken in that time is quite incredible. From the beginning of March to the month of October, no person is permitted to hunt within five days journey of this plain of Carzarmodin in one direction, ten in another, and fifteen in a third, nor to keep any hawk or hunting dog, neither to use any device or engine whatever, for taking any stag, deer, roe-buck, hare, or other game, lest the breed should be injured; by which means the game is always in great abundance.

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