NOTE 6.—­“Jongleours et entregetours de maintes plusieurs manieres de granz experimenz” (P.); “de Giuculer et de Tregiteor” (G.  T.).  Ital. Tragettatore, a juggler; Romance, Trasjitar, Tragitar, to juggle.  Thus Chaucer:—­

  “There saw I playing Jogelours,
  Magiciens, and Tragetours,
  And Phetonisses, Charmeresses,
  Old Witches, Sorceresses,” etc.
      —­House of Fame, III. 169.

And again:—­

  “For oft at festes have I wel herd say,
  That Tregetoures, within an halle large,
  Have made come in a water and a barge,
  And in the halle rowen up and doun. 
  Somtime hath semed come a grim leoun;
       * * * * *
  Somtime a Castel al of lime and ston,
  And whan hem liketh, voideth it anon.”
      —­The Franklin’s Tale, II. 454.

Performances of this kind at Chinese festivities have already been spoken of in note 9 to ch. lxi. of Book I. Shah Rukh’s people, Odoric, Ysbrandt Ides, etc., describe them also.  The practice of introducing such artistes into the dining-hall after dinner seems in that age to have been usual also in Europe.  See, for example, Wright’s Domestic Manners, pp. 165-166, and the Court of the Emperor Frederic II., in Kington’s Life of that prince, I. 470. (See also N. et E. XIV. 410; Cathay, 143; Ysb.  Ides, p. 95.)

CHAPTER XIV.

CONCERNING THE GREAT FEAST HELD BY THE GRAND KAAN EVERY YEAR ON HIS BIRTHDAY.

You must know that the Tartars keep high festival yearly on their birthdays.  And the Great Kaan was born on the 28th day of the September moon, so on that day is held the greatest feast of the year at the Kaan’s Court, always excepting that which he holds on New Year’s Day, of which I shall tell you afterwards.[NOTE 1]

Now, on his birthday, the Great Kaan dresses in the best of his robes, all wrought with beaten gold;[NOTE 2] and full 12,000 Barons and Knights on that day come forth dressed in robes of the same colour, and precisely like those of the Great Kaan, except that they are not so costly; but still they are all of the same colour as his, and are also of silk and gold.  Every man so clothed has also a girdle of gold; and this as well as the dress is given him by the Sovereign.  And I will aver that there are some of these suits decked with so many pearls and precious stones that a single suit shall be worth full 10,000 golden bezants.

And of such raiment there are several sets.  For you must know that the Great Kaan, thirteen times in the year, presents to his Barons and Knights such suits of raiment as I am speaking of.[NOTE 3] And on each occasion they wear the same colour that he does, a different colour being assigned to each festival.  Hence you may see what a huge business it is, and that there is no prince in the world but he alone who could keep up such customs as these.