Their business is to see that no one steps upon the threshold in entering, and if this does happen, they strip the offender of his clothes, and he must pay a forfeit to have them back again; or in lieu of taking his clothes, they give him a certain number of blows.  If they are foreigners ignorant of the order, then there are Barons appointed to introduce them, and explain it to them.  They think, in fact, that it brings bad luck if any one touches the threshold.  Howbeit, they are not expected to stick at this in going forth again, for at that time some are like to be the worse for liquor, and incapable of looking to their steps.[NOTE 4]]

And you must know that those who wait upon the Great Kaan with his dishes and his drink are some of the great Barons.  They have the mouth and nose muffled with fine napkins of silk and gold, so that no breath nor odour from their persons should taint the dish or the goblet presented to the Lord.  And when the Emperor is going to drink, all the musical instruments, of which he has vast store of every kind, begin to play.  And when he takes the cup all the Barons and the rest of the company drop on their knees and make the deepest obeisance before him, and then the Emperor doth drink.  But each time that he does so the whole ceremony is repeated.[NOTE 5]

I will say nought about the dishes, as you may easily conceive that there is a great plenty of every possible kind.  But you should know that in every case where a Baron or Knight dines at those tables, their wives also dine there with the other ladies.  And when all have dined and the tables have been removed, then come in a great number of players and jugglers, adepts at all sorts of wonderful feats,[NOTE 6] and perform before the Emperor and the rest of the company, creating great diversion and mirth, so that everybody is full of laughter and enjoyment.  And when the performance is over, the company breaks up and every one goes to his quarters.

NOTE 1.—­We are to conceive of rows of small tables, at each of which were set probably but two guests.  This seems to be the modern Chinese practice, and to go back to some very old accounts of the Tartar nations.  Such tables we find in use in the tenth century, at the court of the King of Bolghar (see Prologue, note 2, ch. ii.), and at the Chinese entertainments to Shah Rukh’s embassy in the fifteenth century.  Megasthenes described the guests at an Indian banquet as having a table set before each individual. (Athenaeus, IV. 39, Yonge’s Transl.)

[Compare Rubruck’s account, Rockhill’s ed., p. 210:  “The Chan sits in a high place to the north, so that he can be seen by all....” (See also Friar Odoric, Cathay, p. 141.)—­H.  C.]