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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 733 of 810
Words from 200860 to 201123
of 222093
