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Close to the chariot, and keeping hold of it, eight barons attend on either side, to prevent all persons from approaching too near, or from incommoding the emperor. Two milk-white ger-falcons are carried in the chariot along with the emperor, that he may fly them at any game that comes in the way.
The khan has here a mew of about two hundred ger-falcons, which he goes to see once a-week, and he causes them to be fed with the flesh of fawns.
In the beginning of March the great khan departs from Cambalu, and proceeds north towards the ocean , which is at the distance of two days journey, accompanied by 10,000 falconers, with falcons, ger-falcons, hawks, and other birds of prey, that are trained to the sport.
In the eastern parts of Russia there is abundance of fine furs, wax, and mines of silver; and I am told the country reaches to the northern ocean, in which there are islands which abound in falcons and ger-falcons. This concluding section may be considered as a kind of appendix, in which Marco has placed several unconnected hearsay notices of countries where he never had been personally.
At a farther distance there are tents for the falcons, ger-falcons, hawks, and other birds of game; and the whole encampment seems at a distance like a great city, or the station of a large army. The khan remains all the month of March in that plain, employed in hawking; and the multitude of beasts and fowls which are taken in that time is quite incredible.
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