Chapter XC: Section XXXVI

_Account of the Country under the Dominion of the Great Khan of the Manners and Customs of his Subjects; of a Wonderful Piece of Mechanism, constructed by a French Goldsmith; and of the Palace of the Khan at Caracarum_.

From the time of our arrival at the court of Mangu-khan, the leskar or camp made only two days journey towards the south; and it then began its progress northwards, in the direction of Caracarum. In the whole of my journey I was convinced of the truth of what I had been informed by Baldwin de Hainault at Constantinople, that the whole way eastwards was by a continual ascent, as all the rivers run from the east towards the west, sometimes deviating towards the north or south, more or less directly, but never running east, but this was farther confirmed to me by the priests who came from Kathay[1]. From the place where I found Mangukhan, it is twenty days journey south-east to Kathay, and ten days journey right east to Oman Kerule, the original country of the Moal and of Zingis[2]. In those parts there are no cities, but the country is inhabited by a people called Su-Moall, or Mongols of the waters, who live upon fish and hunting, and have neither flocks nor herds. Farther north, likewise, there is no city, but a poor people of herdsmen, who are called Kerkis. The Orangin are there also, who bind smooth bones under their feet, and thrust themselves with such velocity over the ice and snow, as to overtake beasts in the chase. There are many other poor nations in those parts, inhabiting as far to the north as the cold will permit, who join on the west with the country of Pascatir, or the Greater Hungary, of which I have made mention before[3]. In the north the mountains are perpetually covered with snow, and the bounds are unknown by reason of the extreme cold. All these nations are poor; yet they must all betake themselves to some employment, as Zingis established a law that none was to be free from service till so old as to be unable for work.

I was inquisitive about the monstrous men of whom Isidore and Solinus make mention; but no one had ever seen any such, and I therefore doubt whether it be true. Once a priest of Kathay sat by me, clothed in red, of whom I asked how that colour was procured. He told me that on certain high; craggy rocks in the east of Kathay there dwelt certain creatures like men, not above a cubit long, and all hairy, who leapt rather than walked, and dwelt in inaccessible caves. That those who go to hunt them carry strong drink, which they leave in holes of the rocks, and then hide themselves. These little creatures come out from their holes, and having tasted the drink, call out _chin-chin_, on which multitudes gather together, and drink till they are drunk, and fall asleep. Then the hunters come and bind them, after which they draw a few drops of blood from the veins of the neck of each of these creatures, and let them go free; and this blood is the most precious purple dye. He told me, likewise, that there is a province beyond Kathay, into which, if a man enters, he always continues of the same age at which he entered; but this I do not believe[4].

Kathay is on the ocean, and I was told by the French goldsmith at Caracarum, that there is a people or nation called Tante and Manse, inhabiting certain islands, the sea around which is frozen in winter, so that the Tartars might invade them; but they sent messengers to the great khan, offering a tribute of 2000 tuemen or jascots yearly, to permit them to live in peace[5]. A tuemen, toman, or jascot, is a piece of money equal to ten marks.

The ordinary money of Kathay is of paper made like pasteboard, the breadth and length of a hand, on which lines are printed, like the seal of Mangu. They write with a pencil like that used by our painters, and in one figure they comprehend many letters, forming one word[6]. The people of Thibet write as we do, and their characters are very like our own. Those of Tangut write from right to left, like the Arabs, and multiply their lines ascending; while the Jugurs write in descending columns. The common money of the Rutenians or Russians, consists in spotted or grizzled furs.

When our Quinquagesima came, which is the Lent time of all the people of the east, the lady Cota fasted all that week, and came every day to our oratory, giving meat to the priests and other Christians, of whom a great company came daily to attend the service. But the porters of the court, seeing such multitudes come daily to our chapel, which was within the precincts of the court, sent one to tell the monk, that they would not allow such multitudes to come within their bounds; to this the monk made a sharp reply, and threatened to accuse them to the khan; but they prevented him, and lodged a complaint before Mangu, that the monk was too full of words, and gathered too great a multitude to hear him speak. On this he was called before the khan, who reproved him severely, saying, that as a holy man, he should employ himself in prayers to God, and not in speeches to men. But he was afterwards reconciled, by promising to go to the Pope, and to induce all the nations of the west to yield obedience to the khan. On his return to the oratory, the monk asked me if I thought he might gain admission to the Pope as the messenger of Mangu; and whether the Pope would supply him with horses to go to St James in Galicia; and whether your majesty would send your son to the court of Mangu. But I counselled him, to beware of making false promises to Mangu, and that God needed not the service of lies or deceitful speaking. About this time a dispute arose between the monk and one of the Nestorian priests, more learned than the rest, as the monk asserted that man was created before paradise, which the other denied; on reference to me, I said that paradise was created on the _second_ day, when the other trees were made, whereas man was made on the sixth. Then the monk said, that the devil brought clay on die first day, from all the corners of the earth, of which he made the body of man, which God inspired with a soul. On this I sharply reproved him for his heretical ignorance, and he scorned me for my ignorance of the language: I departed, therefore, from him to our own house. But when he and the priests went afterwards in procession to the court without calling me, Mangu earnestly enquired the reason of my absence; and the priests being afraid, excused themselves as well as they could, and reported to me the words of the khan, murmuring at the monk. After this the monk was reconciled to me, and I entreated him to aid me in acquiring the language, promising to help him to the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.

After the first week of fasting, the lady ceased from coming to the oratory, and to give meat and drink, so that we had nothing but brown bread, and paste boiled in melted snow or ice, which was exceedingly bad. My companion was much grieved at this diet, on which I acquainted David, the teacher of the khans eldest son, with our necessities, who made a report to the khan, and we were then supplied, with wine, flour, and oil. The Nestorians and Armenians eat no fish in Lent; but the monk had a chest under the altar, with almonds, and raisins, and dried prunes, and other fruits, on which he fed when alone.

About the middle of Lent, the goldsmiths son came from Caracarum, bringing a silver cross made in the French fashion, with an image of Christ, as a present for Bulgai, the chief secretary of the court; and the young man informed Mangu, that the great work he had commanded to be made by his father, was completed. In the neighbourhood of Caracarum, Mangu has a large court, inclosed with a brick wall like our priories. Within that court is a great palace, in which the khan holds feasts twice a-year, once in Easter, and the other in summer; but the latter is the greater, as all the nobles meet then at the court, when the khan distributes garments among them, and displays all his magnificence. Beside the palace there are many great buildings like our barns, in which the victuals and treasures belonging to the khan are stored. Because it was indecent to have flaggons going about the hall of the palace, as in a tavern, William, the goldsmith, constructed a great silver tree, just without the middle entrance of the great hall, at the root of which were four silver lions, having pipes discharging pure cows milk. Four pipes were conveyed up the body of the tree to its top, which spread out into four great boughs, hanging downwards; on each of these boughs was a golden serpent, all their tails twining about the body of the tree, and each of these formed a pipe, one discharging wine, a second caracosmos, a third ball, or mead made of honey, and the fourth _teracina_ or drink made of rice; each particular drink having a vessel at the foot of the tree to receive it. On the top, between the four pipes, there stood an image of an angel with a trumpet. Under the tree there was a vault, in which a man was hidden, and from him a pipe ascended to the angel; and when the butler commands to sound the trumpet, the man below blows strongly, and the trumpet emits a shrill sound. In a chamber without the palace, the liquors are stored, and servants who are waiting, pour the liquors each in its proper pipe, at the signal, when they are conveyed by concealed pipes up the body of the tree, and discharged into, their appropriate vessels, whence they are distributed by the under butlers to the visitors. The tree is all ornamented with silver boughs, and leaves and fruit all of silver. The palace is like a church, having a middle aisle and two side ones, beyond two rows of pillars, and has three gates to the south, and before the middle gate stands the silver tree. The khan sits at the north wall, on a high place, that he may be seen of all, and there are two flights of steps ascending to him, by one of which his cup-bearer goes up, and comes down by the other. The middle space between the throne and the silver tree is left vacant for the cup-bearers and the messengers who bring presents; on the right side of the khan the men sit, and the women on the left. One woman only sits beside him, but not so high as he.

About Passion Sunday, the khan went before with his small houses only, leaving the great ones behind, and the monk and we followed. On the journey we had to pass through a hilly country[7] where we encountered high winds, extreme cold, and much snow. About midnight the khan sent to the monk and us, requesting us to pray to God to mitigate the severity of the weather, as the beasts in his train were in great jeopardy, being mostly with young, and about to bring forth. Then the monk sent him incense, desiring him to put it on the coals, as an offering to God: Whether he did this or no, I know not, but the tempest ceased, which had lasted two days. On Palm Sunday we were near Caracarum, and at dawn of day we blessed the willow boughs, on which, as yet, there were no buds. About nine o'clock we entered the city of Caracarum, carrying the cross aloft with the banner, and passing through the street of the Saracens, in which the market is held, we proceeded to the church, where the Nestorians met; us in procession. We found them prepared to celebrate the mass, and they all communicated; but I declined this, having already drank, and the sacrament should always be received lasting. After mass, being now evening, William Bouchier, the goldsmith, brought us to sup at his lodging. He had a wife, born in Hungary, of Mahometan parents, who spoke French, and the language of the Comanians. We found here also one Basilicus, the son of an Englishman, likewise born in Hungary, who was likewise skilled in these languages. After supper we retired to our cottage, which, with the oratory of the monk, were placed near the Nestorian church; which is of considerable size, and very handsomely built, and all the ceiling is covered with silk, wrought with gold.

I much deliberated with myself, whether I should continue in communion with the monk and the Nestorians, because I saw their actions full of idolatry and sorcery; but I feared to give offence to the khan in separating from the other Christians, as I saw that my presence pleased him, for which reason I always accompanied them to court; but when there I did not join in their mummeries, praying always in a loud voice for the church, and that God would direct the khan in the right way of salvation. On one occasion the khan promised to come to the church next day; but he departed on his journey to the northward, desiring the priests to excuse him, because he had learnt that the dead were carried thither. But we remained behind, that we might celebrate the festival of Easter. There were a vast multitude of Hungarians, Alans, Rutenians or Russians, Georgians, and Armenians, who had not received the sacrament since they were taken prisoners, as the Nestorians would not admit them into their church unless they were rebaptized; yet they offered their sacrament freely to us, and allowed me to see their manner of consecration; on the vigil of Easter I saw their ceremony of baptism. They pretend to have the ointment with which Mary Magdalen anointed the feet of Jesus, and they put in so much of that oil in kneading their sacramental bread; for all the people of the east use butter, or oil, or fat from a sheeps tail, in their bread, instead of leaven. They pretend also to have of the flour of which the bread was made which was consecrated by our Lord at his Last Supper, as they always keep a small piece of dough from each baking, to mix up with the new, which they consecrate with great reverence. In administering this to the people, they divide the consecrated loaf first into twelve portions, after the number of the apostles, which they afterwards break down into smaller pieces, in proportion to the number of communicants, giving the body of Christ into the hand of every one, who takes it from his own palm with much reverence, and afterwards lays his hand on the top of his head.

I was much at a loss how to act, as the Nestorians entreated me to celebrate the festival, and I had neither vestments, chalice, nor altar. But the goldsmith furnished me with vestments, and made an oratory on a chariot, decently painted with scripture histories; he made also a silver box or pix for the host, and an image of the blessed Virgin, and caused an iron instrument to be made for us to make hosts in our way. Then I made the before mentioned Christians to confess to me, as well as I could, by means of an interpreter, explaining to them the ten commandments, the seven deadly sins, and other matters, exhorting them to confession and penitence: But all of them publickly excused themselves respecting theft, saying that they could not otherwise live, as their masters neither provided them with food or raiment; and I said they might lawfully take necessaries from their masters, especially as they had forcibly deprived them of their subsistence and liberty. Some who were soldiers excused themselves from having gone to the wars, as otherwise they would be slain; these I forbid to go against Christians, declaring, that if slain for their refusal, God would account them as martyrs. After this I gave the holy communion to these people on Easter day, and I hope, with the blessing of God to many, being assisted by the Nestorians, who lent me their chalice and paten. They baptized above threescore persons on Easter eve with great solemnity, to the great joy of all the Christians.

Soon after this William Bouchier was grievously sick, and when recovering, the monk Sergius visited him, and gave him so great a doze of rhubarb as had almost killed him. On this I expostulated with the monk, that he ought either to go about as an apostle, doing miracles by the virtue of prayer and the Holy Ghost, or as a physician, according to the rules of the medical aid, and not to administer strong potions to people who were not prepared. About this time the principal priest of the Nestorians, who was a kind of archdeacon over the rest, became sick $ and when I endeavoured, at the request of his family, to prevail upon the monk to visit him, he said, "Let him alone for he and three others intend to procure an order from Mangu-khan to expel you and I." And I learnt afterwards, that there was a dispute between them, as Mangu-khan had sent four jascots on Easter eve to the monk, to distribute among the priests; and Sergius, keeping one to himself, had given three to the priests, one being a counterfeit, and the priests thought Sergius had kept too great a share to himself. Finding the archdeacon in a dying way, I administered to him the Eucharist and extreme unction, which he received with great humility and devotion; but, by the advice of the monk, I quitted him before he died, as otherwise I could not have entered the court of Mangu-khan for a whole year. When he was dead, the monk said to me, "Never mind it: This man only, among the Nestorians, had any learning, and opposed us; henceforwards Mangu-khan and all the rest will crouch at our feet." He even pretended that he had killed him by his prayers. I afterwards learnt that the monk practised divination, with the aid of a Russian deacon, though, when I challenged him, he pretended to excuse himself, and to deny the truth of what had been reported to me: But I could not leave him, having been placed there by command of the khan, so that I dared not to remove without his special command.

Exclusive of the palace of the khan, Caracarum is not so good as the town of St Denis, and the monastery of St Dennis is worth more than ten times the value of the palace itself. It contains two principal streets: that of the Saracens in which the fairs are held, and to which many merchants resort, as the court is always near; the other is the street of the Kathayans, which is full of artificers. Besides these streets, there are many palaces, in which are the courts of the secretaries of the khan. There are twelve idol temples belonging to different nations, two Mahometan mosques, and one Nestorian church at the end of the town. The town itself is inclosed with a mud wall, and has four gates. On the east side, there is a market for millet and other grain, but which is ill supplied; on the west, sheep and goats are sold; on the north side, oxen and waggons; and on the south side, horses.

Mangu-khan has eight brothers, three by the mother and five by the father. One of these on the mothers side he sent into the country of the Assassines, called _Mulibet_ by the Tartars, with orders to kill them all. Another was sent into Persia, who is supposed to have orders to send armies into Turkey, and from thence against Bagdat and Vestacius. One of his other brothers has been sent into Kathay, to reduce certain rebels. His youngest maternal brother, named Arabucha, lives with him, and keeps up his mothers court, who was a Christian.

About this time, on account of a violent quarrel between the monk and certain Mahometans, and because a rumour was propagated of four hundred assassins having gone forth in divers habits, with an intention to murder the khan, we were ordered to depart from our accustomed place before the court, and to remove to the place where other messengers dwelt. Hitherto I had always hoped for the arrival of the king of Armenia[8], and had not therefore made any application for leave to depart; but hearing no news of the king, or a certain German priest who was likewise expected, and fearing lest we should return in the winter, the severity of which I had already experienced, I sent to demand the pleasure of the khan, whether we were to remain with him or to return, and representing that it would be easier for us to return in summer than in winter. The khan sent to desire that I should not go far off, as he meant to speak with me next day; to which I answered, requesting him to send for the son of the goldsmith to interpret between us, as my interpreter was very incompetent.

[1] So for as was travelled by Rubruquis, and in the route which he pursued
on the north of the Alak mountains, this observation is quite correct
to longitude 100° E. But what he here adds respecting Kathay, is
directly contradictory to the fact; as all the rivers beyond Caracarum
run in an easterly direction. The great central plain of Tangut, then
traversed by the imperial horde of the Mongals, and now by the Eluts
and Kalkas, must be prodigiously elevated above the level of the
ocean.--E.

[2] The information here seems corrupted, or at least is quite incorrect.
Kathay or northern China is due east, or east south-east from the
great plain to the south of Karakum. Daouria, the original residence
of the Mongols of Zingis, between the rivers Onon and Kerlon, is to
the north-east.--E.

[3] The Kerkis must fee the Kirguses, a tribe of whom once dwelt to the
south-west of lake Baikal. The Orangin or Orangey, inhabited on the
east side of that lake. Pascatir is the country of the Bashkirs,
Baschkirians, or Pascatirians in Great Bulgaria, called Great Hungary
in the text, between the Volga and the Ural.--E.

[4] Rubruquis properly rejects the stories of monstrous men, related by the
ancients, yet seems to swallow the absurd story of the purple dye,
engrafted by the Kathayan priest on a very natural invention for
catching apes. He disbelieves the last information of the priest,
which must have been an enigmatical representation of the province of
death, or of the tombs.--E.

[5] It is difficult to guess as to these people and their islands; which
may possibly refer to Japan, or even Corea, which is no island. Such
tribute could not have been offered by the rude inhabitants of
Saghalien or Yesso.--E.

[6] This evidently but obscurely describes the Chinese characters; the most
ingenious device ever contrived for the monopoly of knowledge and
office to the learned class, and for arresting the progress of
knowledge and science at a fixed boundary.--E.

[7] From this circumstance, it would appear that Rubruquis had found the
court of the khan in the country of the Eluts, to the south of the
Changai mountains, perhaps about latitude 44° N. and longitude 103°
E, the meridian of the supposed site of Karakum on the Orchon. And it
may be presumed, that the imperial suite was now crossing the Changai
chain towards the north.--E.

[8] Haitho, of whom some account will be found in the succeeding chapter of
this work.--E.