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Even one of the wisest of the Nestorians demanded of me whether the souls of brutes could fly to any place after death where they should not be compelled to labour. To the before-mentioned question of the Kathayan, I answered: "Friend, this ought hot to be the commencement of our conference.
The Kathayans of Ulug-Beg, here mentioned, were probably Chinese astronomers in the service of that prince, sent on the present occasion to ascertain and report the geographical circumstances of the journey. The text here is obscure, as appearing to indicate Kathayan ambassadors going to Kathay. They may have been ambassadors from Yong-lo to Shakh-Rokh, now on their return.
On the fifth of Shaaban, thirty-five days afterwards, they reached the river Karamuran, Whang-ho, or Hoang-ho; and on the twenty-fifth of that month arrived at Kamju , where they had left their servants, and heavy baggage; where every thing that they had committed to the custody of the Kathayan officers, when on their journey to the capital, was faithfully restored.
In taking this list, the Kathayan officers made them swear that there were no other persons besides those named, and informed them that they would be despised if they did not tell the truth.
Yet they opposed one from Kathay to me, who had his interpreter, while I had the son of the goldsmith to interpret my words. The Kathayan said to me, "Friend! if you be put to a nonplus, who must seek a wiser than thou art?" To this I made no reply. Then he demanded whether I would dispute as to how the world was made, or as to what became of the souls after death?
Before the ambassadors left Kan-chew, they were furnished with horses and carriages, which they returned here in their way back. In this place also, they consigned the presents which were intended for the emperor, except a lion, which they carried along with them, to the imperial court. In proportion as they approached towards the capital, the Kathayan magnificence always increased.
The ambassadors were placed on the left hand of the imperial throne, arid the Kathayan officers on the right. Before each ambassador there were two tables, one of which was covered with various meats and fruits, and the other with cakes and delicate bread, ornamented with festoons of silk and paper. The other persons present had only one table to each.
The emperor was on the point of giving orders for having the ambassadors arrested, when Lidaji and Jandaji, officers named Setalid and Jik-fu, in the Kathayan or Chinese language, who stood before the emperor, and Kazi Yusof, fell prostrate before him, entreating him not to proceed to that extremity, as it might have very bad consequences to put them to death, and would give occasion for the world to say that the emperor had violated the law of nations in the persons of these ambassadors.
When all were properly arranged, a guard beside the throne gave a signal, by calling out aloud three times; on which all the Kathayan officers bowed their heads to the ground towards the throne, and obliged the ambassadors to make a similar reverence; after which every one sate down to his appointed table.
In the pursuit of these, our path should wind, had we time to take the longest, among deserts and lands of darkness, phoenixes and griffins and sphinxes, human monsters, and more monstrous gods, the courts of Akbhar and Aurengzebe, palaces of the Mogul and the Kathayan Khan, pigmies, monkey-gods, mummies, Fakeers, dancing-girls, tattooed warriors, Thugs, cannibals, Fetishes, human sacrifices, and the Evil Eye, Chinese politeness, Bedouin honor, Bechuana simplicity, the plague, the amok, the bearding of lions, the graves of hero-travellers, flowers in the desert, and the universal tenderness of women.
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