IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
| CHAP. VII. THE KAAN'S REWARDS TO IIIS CAPTAINS 351 each of the tablets is inscribed a device, which runs : " By the strength of the great God, and of the great grace which He /talk accorded to our Emperor, may the name of the Kaan be blessed ; and let all such as will not obey kim be slain and be destroyed." And I will tell you besides that all who hold these tablets likewise receive warrants in writing, declaring all their powers and privileges. I should mention too that an officer who holds the chief command of I oo,000 men, or who is general-in- chief of a great host, is entitled to a tablet that weighs 30o 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.2 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 salver chair.3 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.' NOTE 1.—So Sanang Setzen relates that Chinghiz, on returning from one of his great campaigns, busied himself in reorganising his forces and bestowing rank and title, according to the deserts of each, on his nine Orlok, or marshals, and all who had done good service. " He named commandants over hundreds, over thousands, over ten thousands, over hundred thousands, and opened his treasury to the multitude of the people " (p. 91). NOTE 2.--We have several times already had mention of these tablets. (See Prologue, eh. viii. and xviii.) The earliest European allusion to them is in Rubruquis : " And Mangu gave to the Moghul (whom he was going to send to the | |||||
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