Identifier: bookofsermarcopo00polo (find matches)
Title: The book of Ser Marco Polo : the Venetian concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Polo, Marco, 1254-1323? Cordier, Henri, 1849-1925 Yule, Amy Frances Yule, Henry, Sir, 1820-1889
Subjects: Polo, Marco, 1254-1323? Yule, Henry, Sir, 1820-1889 Genghis Khan, 1162-1227 Polo family Inscriptions, Chinese Early maps Mongols Voyages and travels
Publisher: London : John Murray
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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when his father dies.Those four ladies are called empresses, but each is dis-tinguished also by her*proper name. And each of themhas a special court of her own, very grand and ample;no one of them having fewer than 300 fair and charmingdamsels. They have also many pages and eunuchs,and a number of other attendants of both sexes ; so thateach of these ladies has not less than 10,000 personsattached to her court.2 When the Emperor desires the society of one ofthese four consorts, he will sometimes send for the ladyto his apartment and sometimes visit her at her own.He has also a great number of concubines, and I willtell you how he obtains them. Chap. VIII. PERSON OF KUBLAI KAAN 357 You must know that there is a tribe of Tartarscalled Ungrat, who are noted for their beauty. Nowevery year an hundred of the most beautiful maidens ofthis tribe are sent to the Great Kaan, who commitsthem to the charge of certain elderly ladies dwelling inhis palace. And these old ladies make the girls sleep
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Portrait of Kublai Kaan. (From a Chinese Engraving.) with them, in order to ascertain if they have sweetbreath (and do not snore), and are sound in all theirlimbs. Then such of them as are of approved beauty,and are good and sound in all respects, are appointedto attend on the Emperor by turns. Thus six of thesedamsels take their turn for three days and nights, and 58 MARCO POLO Book II, wait on him when he is in his chamber and when he isin his bed, to serve him in any way, and to be entirelyat his orders. At the end of the three days and nightsthey are relieved by other six. And so throughout theyear, there are reliefs of maidens by six and six, chang-ing every three days and nights.3 Note i.—We are left in some doubt as to the colour of Kiiblais eyes, for someof the MSS. read vairs and voirs, and others noirs. The former is a very commonepithet for eyes in the mediaeval romances. And in the ballad on the death of St.Lewis, we are told of his son Tristram :— Droiz fu comme un ro

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