I sharply reproved him for his heretical ignorance, and he scorned me for my ignorance of the language:  I departed, therefore, from him to our own house.  But when he and the priests went afterwards in procession to the court without calling me, Mangu earnestly enquired the reason of my absence; and the priests being afraid, excused themselves as well as they could, and reported to me the words of the khan, murmuring at the monk.  After this the monk was reconciled to me, and I entreated him to aid me in acquiring the language, promising to help him to the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.

After the first week of fasting, the lady ceased from coming to the oratory, and to give meat and drink, so that we had nothing but brown bread, and paste boiled in melted snow or ice, which was exceedingly bad.  My companion was much grieved at this diet, on which I acquainted David, the teacher of the khans eldest son, with our necessities, who made a report to the khan, and we were then supplied, with wine, flour, and oil.  The Nestorians and Armenians eat no fish in Lent; but the monk had a chest under the altar, with almonds, and raisins, and dried prunes, and other fruits, on which he fed when alone.

About the middle of Lent, the goldsmiths son came from Caracarum, bringing a silver cross made in the French fashion, with an image of Christ, as a present for Bulgai, the chief secretary of the court; and the young man informed Mangu, that the great work he had commanded to be made by his father, was completed.  In the neighbourhood of Caracarum, Mangu has a large court, inclosed with a brick wall like our priories.  Within that court is a great palace, in which the khan holds feasts twice a-year, once in Easter, and the other in summer; but the latter is the greater, as all the nobles meet then at the court, when the khan distributes garments among them, and displays all his magnificence.  Beside the palace there are many great buildings like our barns, in which the victuals and treasures belonging to the khan are stored.  Because it was indecent to have flaggons going about the hall of the palace, as in a tavern, William, the goldsmith, constructed a great silver tree, just without the middle entrance of the great hall, at the root of which were four silver lions, having pipes discharging pure cows milk.  Four pipes were conveyed up the body of the tree to its top, which spread out into four great boughs, hanging downwards; on each of these boughs was a golden serpent, all their tails twining about the body of the tree, and each of these formed a pipe, one discharging wine, a second caracosmos, a third ball, or mead made of honey, and the fourth teracina or drink made of rice; each particular drink having a vessel at the foot of the tree to receive it.  On the top, between the four pipes, there stood an image of an angel with a trumpet.  Under the tree there was a vault, in which a man was hidden, and from him a pipe ascended to the angel; and when the butler commands