The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 719 (Color Image)

0719	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1

CHAP. XX.

HOW THE EMPEROR GOES HUNTING

405

large chamber where the Lord sleeps ; and there are also

many other tents and chambers, but they are not in con-

tact with the Great Tent as these are. The two

audience-tents and the sleeping-chamber are constructed

in this way. Each of the audience-tents has three poles,

which are of spice-wood, and are most artfully covered

with lions' skins, striped with black and white and red,

so that they do not suffer from any weather. All three

apartments are also covered outside with similar skins of

striped lions, a substance that lasts for ever.? And inside

they are all lined with ermine and sable, these two being

the finest and most costly furs in existence. For a robe

of sable, large enough to line a mantle, is worth 2000

bezants of gold, or woo at least, and this kind of skin is

called by the Tartars " The King of Furs." The beast

itself is about the size of a marten.' These two furs of

which I speak are applied and inlaid so exquisitely, that it

is really something worth seeing. All the tent-ropes are

of silk. And in short I may say that those tents, to

wit the two audience-halls and the sleeping-chamber,

are so costly that it is not every king could pay for

them.

Round about these tents are others, also fine ones

and beautifully pitched, in which are the Emperor's ladies,

and the ladies of the other princes and officers. And then

there are the tents for the hawks and their keepers, so

that altogether the number of tents there on the plain is

something wonderful. To see the many people that are

thronging to and fro on every side and every day there,

thronging

you would take the camp for a good big city. For you

must reckon the Leeches, and the Astrologers, and the

Falconers, and all the other attendants on so great a

comp ; and add that everybody there has his whole

family with him, for such is their custom.

The Lord remains encamped there until the spring,

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