VIII.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE GREAT TARTAR.[163]

1. Of the Great Tartar, I relate what I have heard from trustworthy persons; to wit, that he is very rich, very just, and very generous. He hath under him four realms as big as the realm of France, and well peopled too. In his dominions every person who cannot get a livelihood, may, an he will, have victual and raiment from that lord, all the days of his life.[164]

2. In his dominion is current, in place of money, paper stamped with black ink, with which can be procured gold, silver, silk, gems, and in short all that man can desire.[165]

3. In that empire are idol-temples, and also monasteries of men and women as with us; and they have a choral service and sermons just like us; and the great pontiffs of the idols wear red hats and capes like our cardinals. ’Tis incredible what splendour, what pomp, what festivity is made in the idol sacrifices.[166]

4. There they burn not their dead; nor do they bury them sometimes for ten years. Some defer this because they have not the means to perform the sacrifices and the obsequies as they would wish. But they keep the body in the house, and serve it with food as if it were alive.

5. The great lords, when they die, are buried with a horse, and with one or two of their best beloved slaves alive.[167]

6. In that empire are very great cities, as I have heard tell from those who have seen them; and there is one called Hyemo which it taketh a day’s journey on horseback to cross, by a direct street through the middle of it.[168]

7. I have heard that that emperor hath two hundred cities under him greater than Toulouse; and I certainly believe them to have more inhabitants.

8. The folk of that empire be marvellously well-mannered, clean, courteous, and liberal withal.

9. In that empire rhubarb is found, and musk. And musk is the navel of a certain wild animal like a goat, from which, when it is taken alive, the skin of the navel is cut in a round form, and the blood which flows from the wound is gathered and put into the said skin, and dried; and that makes the best musk in the world.

10. There are no other things in that empire that I am acquainted with worthy to be described, except the very beautiful and noble earthenware, full of good qualities, and [which is called] porcelain.[169]

11. When the emperor dies, he is carried by certain men with a very great treasure to a certain place, where they place the body, and run away as if the devil were after them, and others are ready incontinently to snatch up the body and bear it in like manner to another place, and so on to the place of burial; and they thus do that the place may not be found, and consequently that no one may be able to steal the treasure.[170]

12. Nor is the death of the emperor made known until another has been secretly established on the throne by his relations and the chiefs.[171]

13. That emperor bestows greater alms than any prince or lord in the world.

14. The people subject to him are for the most part idolaters.