How the Kaan rewarded the Valour of his Captains

What Kublai Khan did after his return to those barons who had behaved well in the battle

Kublai Khan promoted:

• the captains of 100 to be the captains of 1000
• the captains of 1000 to be the captains of 10,000

He advanced every man according to his deserts and to his previous rank.

Besides that, he also made them presents of fine silver plate and other rich appointments.

He gave them Tablets of Authority of a higher degree than they held before.

He bestowed on them fine jewels of gold and silver, and pearls and precious stones; insomuch that the amount that fell to each of them was something astonishing.

Yet ’twas not so much as they had deserved; for never were men seen who did such feats of arms for the love and honour of their Lord, as these had done on that day of the battle.{1}

Those Tablets of Authority are ordered in this way.

The officer who is a captain of 100 hath a tablet of silver; the captain of 1000 hath a tablet of gold or silver-gilt; the commander of 10,000 hath a tablet of gold, with a lion’s head on it.

The different tablets weighed the following.

The tablets of the captains of 100 and 1000 weigh each of them 120 saggi; and the tablet with the lion’s head engraven on it, which is that of the commander of 10,000, weighs 220 saggi.

On each of the tablets is inscribed a device, which runs: “By the strength of the great God, and of the great grace which He hath accorded to our Emperor, may the name of the Kaan be blessed; and let all such as will not obey him be slain and be destroyed.”

All who hold these tablets likewise receive warrants in writing, declaring all their powers and privileges.

An officer who holds the chief command of 100,000 men, or who is general-in-chief of a great host, is entitled to a tablet that weighs 300 saggi.

It has an inscription thereon to the same purport that I have told you already, and below the inscription there is the figure of a lion, and below the lion the sun and moon.

They have warrants also of their high rank, command, and power.

Every one, moreover, who holds a tablet of this exalted degree is entitled, whenever he goes abroad, to have a little golden canopy, such as is called an umbrella, carried on a spear over his head in token of his high command. And whenever he sits, he sits in a silver chair.

To certain very great lords also there is given a tablet with gerfalcons on it; this is only to the very greatest of the Kaan’s barons, and it confers on them his own full power and authority; so that if one of those chiefs wishes to send a messenger any whither, he can seize the horses of any man, be he even a king, and any other chattels at his pleasure.

CHAPTER 8. The Person of the Great Kaan.

Kublai is of a good stature, neither tall nor short, but of a middle height.

He has a becoming amount of flesh, and is very shapely in all his limbs. His complexion is white and red, the eyes black and fine,{1} the nose well formed and well set on.

He has 4 wives, whom he retains permanently as his legitimate consorts; and the eldest of his sons by those four wives ought by rights to be emperor;—I mean when his father dies.

Those 4 ladies are called empresses, but each is distinguished also by her proper name.

Each of them has a special court of her own, very grand and ample; no one of them having fewer than 300 fair and charming damsels. They have also many pages and eunuchs, and a number of other attendants of both sexes; so that each of these ladies has not less than 10,000 persons attached to her court.{2}

When the Emperor desires the society of one of these four consorts, he will sometimes send for the lady to his apartment and sometimes visit her at her own. He has also a great number of concubines, and I will tell you how he obtains them.

There is a tribe of Tartars called Ungrat, who are noted for their beauty.

Every year 100 of the most beautiful maidens of this tribe are sent to the Great Kaan, who commits them to the charge of certain elderly ladies dwelling in his palace.

These old ladies make the girls sleep with them, in order to ascertain if they have sweet breath [and do not snore], and are sound in all their limbs.

Then such of them as are of approved beauty, and are good and sound in all respects, are appointed to attend on the Emperor by turns.

Thus six of these damsels take their turn for 3 days and nights, and wait on him when he is in his room and when he is in his bed, to serve him in any way, and to be entirely at his orders.

At the end of the 3 days and nights they are relieved by other six.

And so throughout the year, there are reliefs of maidens by six and six, changing every three days and nights.{3}

Portrait of Kúblái Kaan. (From a Chinese Engraving.)

CHAPTER 9. The Great Kaan’s Sons

The Emperor hath, by those four wives of his, 22 male children.

The eldest of whom was called Chinkin for the love of the good Chinghis Kaan, the 360first Lord of the Tartars.

This Chinkin, as the Eldest Son of the Kaan, was to have reigned after his father’s death; but, as it came to pass, he died. He left a son behind him, however, whose name is Temur, and he is to be the Great Kaan and Emperor after the death of his Grandfather, as is but right; he being the child of the Great Kaan’s eldest son.

This Temur is an able and brave man, as he hath already proven on many occasions.{1}

The Great Kaan hath also twenty-five other sons by his concubines; and these are good and valiant soldiers, and each of them is a great chief.

I tell you moreover that of his children by his four lawful wives there are seven who are kings of vast realms or provinces, and govern them well; being all able and gallant men, as might be expected. For the Great Kaan their sire is, I tell you, the wisest and most accomplished man, the greatest Captain, the best to govern men and rule an Empire, as well as the most valiant, that ever has existed among all the Tribes of Tartars.{2}