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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
386
MARCO POLO BOOK H.
iv. 2.) In China, the bride's feet must not touch the threshold of the bridegroom's house. (Cf. Dennys' Folk-lore in China, p. IS.)
" The author of the Ch'ue keng- lu mentions also the athletes with clubs standing at the door, at the time of the khan's presence in the hall. He adds, that next to the Khan, two other life-guards used to stand, who held in their hands ` natural ' axes of jade (axes found fortuitously in the ground, probably primitive weapons)." (Pal-
ladius, p. 43. )—H. C.]
NOTE 5.—Some of these etiquettes were probably rather Chinese than Mongol, for the regulations of the court of Kúblzi apparently combined the two. In the visit of Shah Rukh's ambassadors to the court of the Emperor Ch'êng Tsu of the Ming Dynasty in 1421, we are told that by the side of the throne, at an imperial banquet, " there stood two eunuchs, each having a band of thick paper over his mouth, and extending
to the tips of his ears Every time that a dish, or a cup of darassu.n (rice-wine)
was brought to the emperor, all the music sounded." (N. et Ext. XIV. 408, 409.) In one of the Persepolitan sculptures, there stands behind the King an eunuch bearing a fan, and with his mouth covered ; at least so says Heeren. (Asia, I. 178. )
No 6.—"Joug-leours et entregetours de maintes plusieurs manieres de grant exj5eriffzenz " (P.) ; " de Gi uculer et de T regiteor " (G. T. ). Ital. T rageltatore, a juggler ; Romance, Trasjitar, Tragitar, to juggle. Thus Chaucer :-
" There saw I playing Jogelours,
Magiciens, and Tragetours,
And Phetonisses, Charmeresses,
Old Witches, Sorceresses," etc.
—House of Fame, III. 169.
" For oft at festes have I wel herd say,
That Tre;etoures, within an halle large, .
Have made come in a water and a barge, And in the halle rowers up and doun. Somtime hath semed come a grim leoun ;
Somtime a Castel al of lime and ston, And whan hem liketh, voideth it anon."
—7-he Franklin's Tale, II. 454.
Performances of this kind at Chinese festivities have already been spoken of in note 9 to ch. lxi. of Book I. Shah Rukh's people, Odoric, Ysbrandt Ides, etc., describe them also. The practice of introducing such artistes into the dining-hall after dinner seems in that age to have been usual also in Europe. See, for example, Wright's Domestic Manners, pp. 165-166, and the Court of the Emperor Frederic II., in K nston's Life of that prince, I. 470. (See also N. et E. XI V. 410 ; Cathay, 143 ; Ysb. Ides,
P. 95.)
And again:—
CHAPTER XIV.
CONCERNING THE GREAT FEAST HELD BY THE GRAND KAAN EVERY YEAR ON HIS BIRTHDAY.
You must know that the Tartars keep high festival
yearly on their birthdays. And the Great Kaan was
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