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0426 Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1
Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1 / Page 426 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000042
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152

THE TRAVELS OF

aloud, saying " Behold! the man is a saint ! For the angels of God come and carry him to Paradise." And in this way the son deems himself to be honoured in no small degree, seeing that his father is borne off in this creditable manner by the angels. And so he takes his father's head, and straightway cooks it and eats it ; and of the skull he maketh a goblet, from which he and all of the family always drink devoutly to the memory of the deceased father. And they say that by acting in this way they show their great respect for their father. And many other preposterous and abominable customs have they.

46. Of a rich man in Manzi, and how he was fed by fifty maidens.

When I was still in the province of Manzi, I passed by

the foot of the palace wall of a certain burgess whose manner

of life is thus. He hath fifty damsels, virgins, who wait on

him continually ; and when he goeth to dinner and taketh

his seat at table the dishes are brought to him by fives and

fives, those virgins carrying them in with singing of songs

and the music of many kinds of instruments. And they

also feed him as if he were a pet sparrow, putting the food

into his mouth, singing before him continually until those dishes be disposed of. Then other five dishes are brought by other five maidens, with other songs and kinds of music, whilst the first maidens retire. And thus he leadeth his life daily until he shall have lived it out.' Now this man hath a revenue of xxx to n an of tagars of rice. And each tuman is ten thousand, and each tagar is the amount of a heavy assload.2 The court of the palace in which he dwells hath an

There are some things in this quaint story which Odoric heard in Mangi, resembling what Marco tells of the splendid effeminacy of the dethroned king of that country, The idea of being served only by a company of musical maidens was set forth not long ago in a novel by Mr. Peacock as realized in an English country house. The description of the demesne, and reference to hills of gold, etc., reminds us of the accounts of

i +   the island called Kinshan or Golden Hill in the Yangtse Kiang.

t;!   2 Tagh6r (Turk. and Pers.), " a large sack, of which horsemen carry a