NOTE 1.-The first month of the year is still called by the Mongols Chaghan or Chaghan Sara, "the White" or "the White Month;" and the white clothing worn on this festive occasion must have been purely a Mongol custom. For when Shah Rukh's ambassadors were present at the New Year's Feast at the Court of the succeeding Chinese Dynasty (2nd February, 1421) they were warned that no one must wear white, as that among the Chinese was the colour of mourning. (Koeppen, I. 574, II. 309; Cathay, p. ccvii.)

NOTE 2. On the mystic importance attached to the number 9 on all such occasions among the Mongols, see Hammer's Golden Horde, p. 208, Hayton, ch. iii. in Ramusio II. and Strahlenberg (II. 210 of Amsterd. ed. 1757). Vámbéry, speaking of the Kálin or marriage price among the Uzbegs, says: "The question is always how many times nine sheep. cows, camels, or horses, or how many times nine ducats (as is the custom in a town), the father is to receive for giving up his daughter." (Sketches of Cent. Asia, p. 103.)

NOTE 3. The elephant stud of the Son of Heaven has dwindled till in 1862 Dr. Rennie found but one animal remaining. It is worth noticing that the housings of cut cloth or appliqué work (“draps entaillez") are still in fashion in India for the caparison of elephants.

NOTE 4. In 1263 Kublai adopted the Chinese fashion of worshipping the tablets of his own ancestors, and probably at the same time the adoration of his own tablet by his subjects was introduced. Van Braam ingenuously relates how he and the rest of the Dutch Legation of 1794 performed the adoration of the Emperor's Tablet on first entering China, much in the way described in the text.

There is a remarkable amplification in the last paragraph of the chapter as given by Ramusio: "When all are in their proper places, a certain great personage, or high prelate as it were, gets up and says with a loud voice: 'Bow yourselves and adore!' On this immediately all bend and bow the forehead to the ground. Then the prelate says again God save and keep our Lord the Emperor, with length of years and with mirth and happiness.' And all answer: 'So may it be!' And then again the prelate says: 'May God increase and augment his Empire and its prosperity more and more, and keep all his subjects in peace and goodwill, and may all things go well throughout his Dominion!' And all again respond: 'So may it be!' And this adoration is repeated four times."

One of Pauthier's most interesting notes is a long extract from the official Directory of Ceremonial under the Mongol Dynasty, which admirably illustrates the chapters we have last read. I borrow a passage regarding this adoration: "The Musician's Song having ceased, the Ministers shall recite with a loud voice the following Prayer: 'Great Heaven, that extendest over all! Earth which art under the guidance of Heaven! We invoke You and beseech You to heap blessings upon

the Emperor and the Empress! Grant that they may live ten thousand, a hundred thousand years!'

"Then the First Chamberlain shall respond: 'May it be as the Prayer hath said!' The Ministers shall then prostrate themselves, and when they rise return to their places, and take a cup or two of wine."

The Kowtow (Kheu-theu) which appears repeatedly in this ceremonial, and which in our text is indicated by the four prostrations, was, Pauthier alleges, not properly a Chinese form, but only introduced by the Mongols. Baber indeed speaks of it as the Kornish, a Moghul ceremony, in which originally "the person who performed it kneeled nine times and touched the earth with his brow each time." He describes it as performed very elaborately (nine times twice) by his younger uncle in visiting the elder. But in its essentials the ceremony must have been of old date at the Chinese Court. For the Annals of the Thang Dynasty, in a passage cited by M. Pauthier himself,* mention that ambassadors from the famous Hárún al Rashíd in 798 had to perform "the ceremony of kneeling and striking the forehead against the ground." And M. Pauthier can scarcely be right in saying that the practice was disused by the Ming Dynasty and only reintroduced by the Manchus. For in the story of Shah Rukh's embassy the performance of the Kowtow occurs repeatedly.

(Gaubil, 142; Van Braam, I. 20-21; Baber, 106; N. et E. XIV. Pt. I. 405, 407, 418:)

The enumeration of four prostrations in the text is, I fancy, quite correct. There are several indications that this number was used instead of the three times three of later days. Thus Carpini, when introduced to the Great Kaan, "bent the left knee four times." And in the Chinese bridal ceremony of "Worshipping the Tablets," the genuflexion is made four times. At the court of Shah Abbas an obeissance evidently identical was repeated four times. (Carp. 759; Doolittle, p. 60; P. della Valle, I. 646.)

CHAPTER XVI.

CONCERNING THE TWELVE THOUSAND BARONS WHO RECEIVE ROBES OF CLOTH OF GOLD FROM THE EMPEROR ON THE GREAT FESTIVALS,

THIRTEEN CHANGES A-PIECE.

Now you must know that the Great Kaan hath set apart 12,000 of his men who are distinguished by the name of Keshican, as I have told you before; and on each of these

* Gaubil, cited in Pauthier's Hist. des Relations Politiques de la Chine, &c., p. 226.

12,000 Barons he bestows thirteen changes of raiment, which are all different from one another; I mean that in one set the 12,000 are all of one colour; the next 12,000 of another colour, and so on; so that they are of thirteen different colours. These robes are garnished with gems and pearls and other precious things in a very rich and costly manner.' And along with each of these changes of raiment, i.e. 13 times in the year, he bestows on each of those 12,000 Barons a fine golden girdle of great richness and value, and likewise a pair of boots of Camut, that is to say of Borgal, curiously wrought with silver thread; insomuch that when they are clothed in these dresses every man of them looks like a king! And there is an established order as to which dress is to be worn at each of those thirteen feasts. The Emperor himself also has his thirteen suits corresponding to those of his Barons; in colour, I mean (though his are grander, richer, and costlier), so that he is always arrayed in the same colour as his Barons, who are, as it were, his comrades. And you may see that all this costs an amount which it is scarcely possible to calculate.

Now I have told you of the thirteen changes of raiment received from the Prince by those 12,000 Barons, amounting in all to 156,000 suits of so great cost and value, to say nothing of the girdles and the boots which are also worth a great sum of money. All this the Great Lord hath ordered, that he may attach the more of grandeur and dignity to his festivals.

And now I must mention another thing that I had forgotten, but which you will be astonished to learn from this Book. You must know that on the Feast Day a great Lion is led to the Emperor's presence, and as soon as it sees him it lies down before him with every sign of the greatest veneration, as if it acknowledged him for its lord; and it remains there lying before him, and entirely unchained. Truly this must seem a strange story to those who have not seen the thing!'

NOTE 1.-On the Keshican, see note 1 to chap. xii., and on the changes of raiment note 3 to chap. xiv., and the remarks there as to the number of distributions. I confess that the stress laid upon the number 13 in this chapter makes the supposition of error more difficult. But there is something odd and unintelligible about the whole of the chapter except the last paragraph. For the 12,000 Keshican are here all elevated to Barons; and at the same time the statement about their changes of raiment seems to be merely that already made in chapter xiv. This repetition occurs only in the French MSS., but as it is in all these we cannot reject it.

NOTE 2.-The words Camut and Borgal appear both to be used here for what we call Russia-Leather. The latter word in one form or another, Bolghár, Borgháli, or Buikál, is the term applied to that material to this day nearly all over Asia. Ibn Batuta says that in travelling during winter from Constantinople to the Wolga he had to put on three pairs of boots, one of wool (which we should call stockings), a second of wadded linen, and a third of Borgháli, " i. e. of horse-leather lined with wolf-skin." Horse-leather seems to be still the favourite material for

1 oots among all the Tartar nations. The name was undoubtedly taken rom Bolghar on the Wolga, the people of which are traditionally said to have invented the art of preparing skins in that manner. This manufacture is still one of the staple trades of Kazan, the city which in position and importance is the nearest representative of Bolghar now.

Camut is explained by Klaproth to be "leather made from the back-skin of a camel." It appears in Johnson's Persian Dictionary as Kámú, but I do not know from what language it originally comes. The word is in the Latin column of the Petrarchian Vocabulary with the Persian rendering Sagri. This shows us what is meant, for Saghrí is just our word Shagreen, and is applied to a fine leather granulated in that way which is much used for boots and the like by the people of Central Asia. In the commercial lists of our Indian N.W. frontier we find as synonymous Saghri or Kimukht, "Horse or Ass-hide." No doubt this latter word is a form of Kámú or Camut. It appears (as Keimukht, "a sort of leather") in a detail of imports to Aden given by Ibn al Wardi, a geographer of the 13th century.

Instead of Camut, Ramusio has Camoscia, i.e. Chamois, and the same seems to be in all the editions based on Fra Pepino's version. It may be a misrendering of camutum or camutium; or is there any real connexion between the Oriental Kámú, Kímukht, and the Italian camoscia ? (I. B. II. 445; Klapr. Mém. vol. III.; Davies's Trade Report, App. p. ccxx; Vámbéry's Travels, 423 ; Not. et Ext. II. 43.)

Fraehn (writing in 1832) observes that he knew no use of the word Bolghár, in the sense of Russian leather, older than the 17th century. But we see that both Marco and Ibn Batuta use it. (F. on the Wolga Bulghars, p. 8-9.)

Pauthier in a note (p. 285) gives a list of the garments issued to

certain officials on these ceremonial occasions under the Mongols, and sure enough this list includes "pairs of boots in red leather." Odoric particularly mentions the broad golden girdles worn at the Kaan's

court.

NOTE 3." Then come mummers leading lions, which they cause to salute the Lord with a reverence” (Odoric, p. 143). A lion sent by Mirza Baisangar, one of the Princes of Timur's House, accompanied Shah Rukh's embassy as a present to the Emperor; and like presents were frequently repeated (see Amyot, XIV. 37, 38).

CHAPTER XVII.

HOW THE GREAT KAAN ENJOINETH HIS PEOPLE TO SUPPLY HIM WITH

:

GAME.

THE three months of December, January, and February, during which the Emperor resides at his Capital City, are assigned for hunting and fowling, to the extent of some 40 days' journey round the city; and it is ordained that the larger game taken be sent to the Court. To be more particular of all the larger beasts of the chase, such as boars, roebucks, bucks, stags, lions, bears, &c., the greater part of what is taken has to be sent, and feathered game likewise. The animals are gutted and despatched to the Court on carts. This is done by all the people within 20 or 30 days' journey, and the quantity so despatched is immense. Those at a greater distance cannot send the game, but they have to send the skins after tanning them, and these are employed in the making of equipments for the Emperor's army.'

NOTE 1.-So Magaillans: "Game is so abundant, especially at the Capital, that every year during the three winter months you see at different places, intended for despatch thither, besides great piles of every sort of wildfowl, lines of four-footed game of a gunshot or two in length the animals being all frozen and standing on their feet. Among other species you see three sundry kinds of bears. . . . and great abundance of other animals, as stags and deer of different sorts, boars, elks, hares, rabbits, squirrels, wild-cats, rats, geese, ducks, very