The Noble City of Tauris

CHAPTER 59: The Province of Tenduc, and the Descendants of Prester John.

Tenduc is a province which lies towards the east, and contains numerous towns and villages; among which is the chief city, also called Tenduc.

The king of the province is of the lineage of Prester John, George by name, and he holds the land under the Great Kaan; not that he holds anything like the whole of what Prester John possessed.{1} It is a custom, I may tell you, that these kings of the lineage of Prester John always obtain to wife either daughters of the Great Kaan or other princesses of his family.{2}

In this province is found the stone from which Azure is made. It is obtained from a kind of vein in the earth, and is of very fine quality.{3} There is also a great manufacture of fine camlets of different colours from camel’s hair. The people get their living by their cattle and tillage, as well as by trade and handicraft.

The rule of the province is in the hands of the Christians, as I have told you; but there are also plenty of Idolaters and worshippers of Mahommet. And there is also here a class of people called Argons, which is as much as to say in French Guasmul, or, in other words, sprung from two different races: to wit, of the race of the Idolaters of Tenduc and of that of the worshippers of Mahommet. They are handsomer men than the other natives of the country, and having more ability, they come to have authority; and they are also capital merchants.{4}

You must know that it was in this same capital city 285of Tenduc that Prester John had the seat of his government when he ruled over the Tartars, and his heirs still abide there; for, as I have told you, this King George is of his line, in fact, he is the sixth in descent from Prester John.

Here also is what we call the country of Gog and Magog; they, however, call it Ung and Mungul, after the names of two races of people that existed in that Province before the migration of the Tartars. Ung was the title of the people of the country, and Mungul a name sometimes applied to the Tartars.{5}

And when you have ridden seven days eastward through this province you get near the provinces of Cathay. You find throughout those seven days’ journey plenty of towns and villages, the inhabitants of which are Mahommetans, but with a mixture also of Idolaters and Nestorian Christians. They get their living by trade and manufactures; weaving those fine cloths of gold which are called Nasich and Naques, besides silk stuffs of many other kinds. For just as we have cloths of wool in our country, manufactured in a great variety of kinds, so in those regions they have stuffs of silk and gold in like variety.{6}

All this region is subject to the Great Kaan. There is a city you come to called Sindachu, where they carry on a great many crafts such as provide for the equipment of the Emperor’s troops. In a mountain of the province there is a very good silver mine, from which much silver is got: the place is called Ydifu. The country is well stocked with game, both beast and bird.{7}

CHAPTER LX. Concerning the Kaan’s Palace of Chagannor.

At the end of those three days you find a city called Chagan Nor [which is as much as to say White Pool], at which there is a great Palace of the Grand Kaan’s;{1} and he likes much to reside there on account of the Lakes and Rivers in the neighbourhood, which are the haunt of swans{2} and of a great variety of other birds. The adjoining plains too abound with cranes, partridges, pheasants, and other game birds, so that the Emperor takes all the more delight in staying there, in order to go a-hawking with his gerfalcons and other falcons, a sport of which he is very fond.{3}

There are five different kinds of cranes found in those tracts, as I shall tell you. First, there is one which is very big, and all over as black as a crow; the second kind again is all white, and is the biggest of all; its wings are really beautiful, for they are adorned with round eyes like those of a peacock, but of a resplendent golden colour, whilst the head is red and black on a white ground. The third kind is the same as ours. The fourth is a small kind, having at the ears beautiful long pendent feathers of red and black. The fifth kind is grey all over and of great size, with a handsome head, red and black.{4}

Near this city there is a valley in which the Emperor has had several little houses erected in which he keeps in mew a huge number of cators, which are what we call the Great Partridge. You would be astonished to see what a quantity there are, with men to take charge of them. So whenever the Kaan visits the place he is furnished with as many as he wants.{5}

CHAPTER 61. The City of Chandu, and the Kaan’s Palace there.

And when you have ridden three days from the city last mentioned, between north-east and north, you come to a city called Chandu,{1} which was built by the Kaan now reigning.

There is at this place a very fine marble Palace, the rooms of which are all gilt and painted with figures of men and beasts and birds, and with a variety of trees and flowers, all executed with such exquisite art that you regard them with delight and astonishment.{2}

Round this Palace a wall is built, inclosing a compass 299of 16 miles, and inside the Park there are fountains and rivers and brooks, and beautiful meadows, with all kinds of wild animals (excluding such as are of ferocious nature), which the Emperor has procured and placed there to supply food for his gerfalcons and hawks, which he keeps there in mew.

Of these there are more than 200 gerfalcons alone, without reckoning the other hawks. The Kaan himself goes every week to see his birds sitting in mew, and sometimes he rides through the park with a leopard behind him on his horse’s croup; and then if he sees any animal that takes his fancy, he slips his leopard at it,{3} and the game when taken is made over to feed the hawks in mew. This he does for diversion.

Moreover [at a spot in the Park where there is a charming wood] he has another Palace built of cane, of which I must give you a description. It is gilt all over, and most elaborately finished inside.

[It is stayed on gilt and lackered columns, on each of which is a dragon all gilt, the tail of which is attached to the column whilst the head supports the architrave, and the claws likewise are stretched out right and left to support the architrave.]

The roof, like the rest, is formed of canes, covered with a varnish so strong and excellent that no amount of rain will rot them. These canes are a good 3 palms in girth, and from 10 to 15 paces in length.

[They are cut across at each knot, and then the pieces are split so as to form from each two hollow tiles, and with these the house is roofed; only every such tile of cane has to be nailed down to prevent the wind from lifting it.]

In short, the whole Palace is built of these canes, which (I may mention) serve also for a great variety of other useful purposes. The construction of the Palace is so devised that it can be taken down and put up again with great celerity; and it can all be taken 300to pieces and removed whithersoever the Emperor may command. When erected, it is braced [against mishaps from the wind] by more than 200 cords of silk.{4}

The Lord abides at this Park of his, dwelling sometimes in the Marble Palace and sometimes in the Cane Palace for three months of the year, to wit, June, July, and August; preferring this residence because it is by no means hot; in fact it is a very cool place. When the 28th day of [the Moon of] August arrives he takes his departure, and the Cane Palace is taken to pieces.{5}

But I must tell you what happens when he goes away from this Palace every year on the 28th of the August [Moon].

The Kaan keeps over 10,000 white horses and mares all pure white without a speck. The milk of these mares is drunk by himself and his family, and by none else, except by those of one great tribe the Horiad.

This privilege was granted them by Genghis Kaan, on account of a certain victory that they helped him to win long ago.{6}

When these mares are passing across the country, and any one falls in with them, be he the greatest lord in the land, he must not presume to pass until the mares have gone by; he must either tarry where he is, or go a half-day’s journey round if need so be, so as not to come nigh them; for they are to be treated with the greatest respect.

When the Lord sets out from the Park on the 28th of August, as I told you, the milk of all those mares is taken and sprinkled on the ground. And this is done on the injunction of the Idolaters and Idol-priests, who say that it is an excellent thing to sprinkle that milk on the ground every 28th of August, so that the Earth and the Air 301and the False Gods shall have their share of it, and the Spirits likewise that inhabit the Air and the Earth. And thus those beings will protect and bless the Kaan and his children and his wives and his folk and his gear, and his cattle and his horses, his corn and all that is his.

After this is done, the Emperor is off and away.{7}

During the 3 months of every year that the Lord resides at that place, if there is bad weather, there are certain crafty enchanters and astrologers in his train. .

They are such adepts in necromancy and the diabolic arts, that they are able to prevent any cloud or storm from passing over the spot on which the Emperor’s Palace stands.

The sorcerers who do this are called Tebet and Kesimur [Tibet and Kashmir], which are the names of two nations of Idolaters.

Whatever they do in this way is by the help of the Devil, but they make those people believe that it is compassed by dint of their own sanctity and the help of God.{8}

These people also have a custom which I must tell you. If a man is condemned to death and executed by the lawful authority, they take his body and cook and eat it.

But if any one die a natural death then they will not eat the body.{9}

There is another marvel performed by those Bacsi, of whom I have been speaking as knowing so many enchantments.{10}

When the Great Kaan is at his great Palace, seated at his table, which stands on a platform some eight cubits above the ground, his cups are set before him [on a great buffet] in the middle of the hall pavement 10 paces from his table, and filled with wine, or other good spiced liquor such as they use.

When the Lord desires to drink, these enchanters by the power of their enchantments cause the cups to move from their place without being touched by anybody, and to present themselves to the Emperor!

This every one present may witness, and there are often times more than 10,000 persons thus present.

’Tis a truth and no lie! and so will tell you the sages of our own country who understand necromancy, for they also can perform it.{11}

When the Idol Festivals come round, these Bacsi go to the Prince and say:

“Sire, the Feast of such a god is come” (naming him). “My Lord, you know,” the enchanter will say, “that this god, when he gets no offerings, always sends bad weather and spoils our seasons. So we pray you to give us such and such a number of black-faced sheep,”

naming whatever number they please.

“And we beg also, good my lord, that we may have such a quantity of incense, and such a quantity of lignaloes, and”—so much of this, so much of that, and so much of t’other, according to their fancy—“that we may perform a solemn service and a great sacrifice to our Idols, and that so they may be induced to protect us and all that is ours.”

The Bacsi say these things to the Barons entrusted with the Stewardship, who stand around the Great Kaan. These repeat them to the Kaan, and he then orders the Barons to give everything that the Bacsi have asked for.

When they have got the articles they go and make a great feast in honour of their god, and hold great ceremonies of worship with grand illuminations and quantities of incense of a variety of odours, which they make up from different aromatic spices.

And then they cook the meat, and set it before the idols, and sprinkle the broth hither and thither, saying that in this way the idols get their bellyful.

Thus it is that they keep their festivals. Each of the idols has a name of his own, and a feast-day, just as our Saints have their anniversaries.{12}

They have also immense Minsters and Abbeys, some of them as big as a small town, with more than 2,000 monks (i.e. after their fashion) in a single abbey.{13}

These monks dress more decently than the rest of the people, and have the head and beard shaven. There are some among these Bacsi who are allowed by their rule to take wives, and who have plenty of children.{14}

Then there is another kind of devotees called Sensin, who are men of extraordinary abstinence after their fashion, and lead a life of such hardship.

All their life long they eat nothing but bran,{15} which they take mixt with hot water. That is their food: bran, and nothing but bran and water for their drink.

’Tis a lifelong fast! so that I may well say their life is one of extraordinary asceticism. They have great idols, and plenty of them; but they sometimes also worship fire.

The other Idolaters who are not of this sect call these people heretics—Patarins as we should say{16}—because they do not worship their idols in their own fashion.

Those of whom I am speaking would not take a wife on any consideration.{17} They wear dresses of hempen stuff, black and blue,{18} and sleep upon mats; in fact their asceticism is something astonishing.

Their idols are all feminine, they have women’s names.{19}

I will now tell about the Sovereign of the Tartars, Cublay by name, that most noble and puissant Lord.