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The badge or tablet of a general, weighs three hundred sagi, or fifty ounces of gold, laving images of the sun and moon; and such as have the representation of a ger-falcon, may take with them a whole army for their guard. Kublai-khan is a comely handsome man of middle stature, with a fresh complexion, bright black eyes, a well formed nose, and every way well proportioned.
It happened, however, not long after this, that a king of the Indies named Argon, sent three of his counsellors, named Ulatai, Apusca, and Coza, as ambassadors to Kublai-khan on the following occasion. Bolgana, the wife of Argon, was lately dead, and on her death-bed had requested of her husband that he should choose a wife from among her relations in Kathay.
At last Marco Polo, his father, and his uncle, reached Ciandu or Tchan-tchou of the present day, called elsewhere in this narrative Clemen-foo. Here Kublaï-Khan received the papal envoys, for he was occupying his summer palace beyond the great wall, north of Pekin, which was then the capital of the empire.
In 1245 he was succeeded by his son Kajuk-khan, called Khen-khan by Marco in the text. To him Mangu-khan succeeded in 1247, who held the empire till 1257; when he was succeeded by Koplai or Kublai-khan, who reigned thirty-five years, and died in 1292. Harris.
At Acre they had an interview with the legate Theobald, who authorized them to go to Jerusalem and there to procure some of the sacred oil. This mission accomplished, the Venetians returned to Acre and asked the legate to give them letters to Kublaï-Khan, mentioning the death of Pope Clement IV.; he complied with their request, and they returned to Laïas or Issus.
Marco probably dated the reign of Kublai-khan, which he extends to sixty years, from his having received a great delegated government, a long time before he became great khan, or emperor of the Tartars. Bargu-fin, or Bargouin, is the name of a river on the east side of lake Baikal, on which is a town or village named Barguzin, or Barguzinskoy Ostrog, signifying the town of the Burguzians.
Pekin was built by Kublai-Khan about 1282, near the site of an important city which dated from the Chow dynasty, or some centuries before the Christian era. The city covers an enclosed space about twenty miles in circumference. It is rectangular in form, and divided into two parts, the Chinese and the Tartar cities.
Kublaï-Khan acceded to his request and sent off his daughter Cogatra to Prince Arghun, attended by a numerous suite; but the countries by which they endeavoured to travel were not safe; the caravan was soon stopped by disturbances and rebellions, and after some months was obliged to return to the Emperor's palace.
Then the fleet went to Zaila, almost at the entrance of the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, and at last by the coast of Yemen and Hadramaut they came to Aden, the port frequented by all the ships trading with India and China; then to Escier, whence a great quantity of fine horses are exported; Dafar, which produces incense of the finest quality, and Galatu, now Kalajate, on the coast of Oman; then to Ormuz, that Marco Polo had visited once before when he was on his way from Venice to the court of Kublaï-Khan.
At the Pass this morning I saw three such camel trains coming down from Mongolia and the Desert of Gobi: long, slow-moving, romantic caravans that made me feel as if I had become a character in the Arabian Nights or a contemporary of Kublai-Khan.
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