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
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392 MARCO POLO BOOK II.
and a beautiful censer of gold. So they incense the
tablet and the altar with great reverence, and then
return each man to his seat.
When all have performed this, then the presents
are offered, of which I have spoken as being so rich
and costly. And after all have been offered and been
seen by the Emperor, the tables are set, and all take
their places at them with perfect order as I have already
told you. And after dinner the jugglers come in and
amuse the Court as you have heard before ; and when
that is over, every man goes to his quarters.
NcTI, 1.—The first month of the year is still called by the Mongols Chaghan or Chaghan Sara, ." the White " or the " White Month " ; and the wearing of white clothing on this festive occasion must have been purely a Mongol custom. For when Shah Rukh's ambassadors were present at the New Year's Feast at the Court of the succeeding Chinese Dynasty (2nd February, 1421) they were warned that no one must wear white, as that among the Chinese was the colour of mourning. (Iioeppen, I. 574, II. 309 ; Cathay, p. ccvii.)
NOTE 2.—On the mystic importance attached to the number 9 on all such occasions among the Mongols, see Hammer's Golden Horde, p. 208 ; Hayton, ch. iii. in Ramusio II. ; Not. et Ext. XIV. Pt. I. 32 ; and Strahlenberg (II. 210 of Amsterd. ed. 1757). Vámbéry, speaking of the .Kdlín or marriage price among the Uzbegs, says : " The question is always how many times nine sheep, cows, camels, or horses, or how many times nine ducats (as is the custom in a town), the father is to receive for giving up his daughter." (Sketches of Cent. Asia, p. 103.) Sheikh Ibrahim of Darband, making offerings to Timur, presented nines of everything else, but of slaves eight only. " Where is the ninth ?" enquired the court official. " Who but I myself?" said the Sheikh, and so won the heart of Timur. (A. Arabsiadis . . . . Timuri Hist. p. 357.)
NOTE 3.—The elephant stud of the Son of Heaven had dwindled till in 1862 Dr. Rennie found but one animal ; now none remain. [Dr. S. W. Williams writes (Middle Kingdom, I. pp. 323-324) : " Elephants are kept at Peking for show, and are used to draw the state chariot when the Emperor goes to worship at the Altars of heaven and Earth, but the sixty animals seen in the days of hienlung, by Bell, have since dwindled to one or two. Van Braam met six going into Peking, sent thither from Yun-Nan." These were no doubt carrying tribute from Burmah.—H. C.] It is worth noticing that the housings of cut cloth or appliqué work (" draps entaillez") are still in fashion in India for the caparison of elephants.
NOTE 4.—In 1263 Kúblái adopted the Chinese fashion of worshipping the tablets of his own ancestors, and probably at the same time the adoration of his own tablet by his subjects was introduced. Van Braam ingenuously relates how he and the rest of the Dutch Legation of 1794 performed the adoration of the Emperor's Tablet on first entering China, much in the way described in the text.
There is a remarkable amplification in the last paragraph of the chapter as given by Ramusio : " When all are in their proper places, a certain great personage, or
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