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In that land there are many provinces, the greater part of which are not yet subjected to the Moals, and the sea is interposed between them and India. These Kathayans are men of small stature, with small eyes, and speak much through the nose.
At last the canes slipped away from under him, and every person thought he must have fallen to the ground and been dashed to pieces; but the pretended sleeper instantly started up and caught him in the air. There was one musician who played tunes after the twelve different modes of the Kathayans.
On passing from the first court into the second, the ambassadors found a larger and more magnificent pavilion than the former, on which was a raised platform, or sofa, of a triangular form, four cubits high, covered with yellow satin, and sumptuously adorned with gildings and paintings, representing the Simorg , or Phoenix, which the Kathayans call the royal bird.
The great majority of the troops in Mangi are Kathayans, and the garrisons in Kathay are composed of people from Mangi.
From this time, the Kathayans came daily to meet them, erecting tents or huts, adorned with green boughs, in the desert for their accommodation, and plentifully supplied their tables with fowls, and various kinds of flesh, fruits, fresh and dried, and other victuals, all served on porcelain or china dishes, besides several kinds of strong liquors; and henceforwards they were as splendidly regaled in the desert as they afterwards were in the cities of Kathay.
According to the list taken by the Kathayans, Amir Shadi Khoja, and Gaksheh, had 200 persons in their retinue; Soltan Ahmed and Gayath-addin, 500; Argdak, sixty; Ardvan, fifty; and Taj'oddin, fifty; in all 860 persons; among whom were many merchants, who were passed as belonging to the retinue of the ambassadors, and who were, afterwards under the necessity of performing the services which fell to their lot, according to the register.
At this place, the Kathayans had in one night inclosed a plot of ground 500 paces square, with walls ten feet high. This wall was composed of earth, hard pressed down between two planks, as in a mould, leaving two gates; and the place whence the earth was dug, served for a ditch. There were strong guards posted at both of the gates, and other soldiers posted along the ditch.
The inhabitants have a very high notion of their own superior intelligence, which they express by saying, that they only of all the people on earth have two eyes; to the Latins they allow one, and consider all other nations as blind. The Kathayans have small eyes and no beards. Their money consists of small square pieces of paper, impressed with the seal of their emperor.
Exclusive of the palace of the khan, Caracarum is not so good as the town of St Denis, and the monastery of St Dennis is worth more than ten times the value of the palace itself. It contains two principal streets: that of the Saracens in which the fairs are held, and to which many merchants resort, as the court is always near; the other is the street of the Kathayans, which is full of artificers.
There are many hundred cubits of pavement, the stones of which are so even and well joined, that they looked like the checkered ruling in books. Nothing in other countries can equal the Kathayans in masonry, joiner-work, making relievos or raised figures in plaster, and in painting.
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