NOTE 4.—­This etiquette is specially noticed also by Odoric, as well as by Makrizi, by Rubruquis, and by Plano Carpini.  According to the latter the breach of it was liable to be punished with death.  The prohibition to tread on the threshold is also specially mentioned in a Mahomedan account of an embassy to the court of Barka Khan.  And in regard to the tents, Rubruquis says he was warned not to touch the ropes, for these were regarded as representing the threshold.  A Russo-Mongol author of our day says that the memory of this etiquette or superstition is still preserved by a Mongol proverb:  “Step not on the threshold; it is a sin!” But among some of the Mongols more than this survives, as is evident from a passage in Mr. Michie’s narrative:  “There is a right and a wrong way of approaching yourt also.  Outside the door there are generally ropes lying on the ground, held down by stakes, for the purpose of tying up the animals when they want to keep them together.  There is a way of getting over or round these ropes that I never learned, but on one occasion the ignorant breach of the rule on our part excluded us from the hospitality of the family.”  The feeling or superstition was in full force in Persia in the 17th century, at least in regard to the threshold of the king’s palace.  It was held a sin to tread upon it in entering. (Cathay, 132; Rubr. 255, 268, 319; Plan.  Carp. 625, 741; Makrizi, I. 214; Mel.  Asiat.  Ac.  St. Petersb. II. 660; The Siberian Overland Route, p. 97; P.  Della Valle, II. 171.)

[Mr. Rockhill writes (Rubruck, p. 104):  “The same custom existed among the Fijians, I believe.  I may note that it also prevailed in ancient China.  It is said of Confucius ’when he was standing he did not occupy the middle of the gate-way; when he passed in or out, he did not tread on the threshold.’ (Lun-yue, Bk.  X. ch. iv. 2.) In China, the bride’s feet must not touch the threshold of the bridegroom’s house, (Cf. Denny’s Folk-lore in China, p. 18.)

“The author of the Ch’ue keng lu mentions also the athletes with clubs standing at the door, at the time of the khan’s presence in the hall.  He adds, that next to the Khan, two other life-guards used to stand, who held in their hands ‘natural’ axes of jade (axes found fortuitously in the ground, probably primitive weapons).” (Palladius, p. 43.)—­H.  C.]

NOTE 5.—­Some of these etiquettes were probably rather Chinese than Mongol, for the regulations of the court of Kublai apparently combined the two.  In the visit of Shah Rukh’s ambassadors to the court of the Emperor Ch’eng Tsu of the Ming Dynasty in 1421, we are told that by the side of the throne, at an imperial banquet, “there stood two eunuchs, each having a band of thick paper over his mouth, and extending to the tips of his ears....  Every time that a dish, or a cup of darassun (rice-wine) was brought to the emperor, all the music sounded.” (N. et Ext. XIV. 408, 409.) In one of the Persepolitan sculptures, there stands behind the King an eunuch bearing a fan, and with his mouth covered; at least so says Heeren. (Asia, I. 178.)