NOTE 2.—­On the mystic importance attached to the number 9 on all such occasions among the Mongols, see Hammer’s Golden Horde, p. 208; Hayton, ch. iii. in Ramusio II.; Not. et Ext. XIV.  Pt.  I. 32; and Strahlenberg (II. 210 of Amsterd. ed. 1757).  Vambery, speaking of the Kalin or marriage price among the Uzbegs, says:  “The question is always how many times nine sheep, cows, camels, or horses, or how many times nine ducats (as is the custom in a town), the father is to receive for giving up his daughter.” (Sketches of Cent.  Asia, p. 103.) Sheikh Ibrahim of Darband, making offerings to Timur, presented nines of everything else, but of slaves eight only.  “Where is the ninth?” enquired the court official.  “Who but I myself?” said the Sheikh, and so won the heart of Timur. (A.  Arabsiadis ...  Timuri Hist. p. 357.)

NOTE 3.—­The elephant stud of the Son of Heaven had dwindled till in 1862 Dr. Rennie found but one animal; now none remain. [Dr. S. W. Williams writes (Middle Kingdom, I. pp. 323-324):  “Elephants are kept at Peking for show, and are used to draw the state chariot when the Emperor goes to worship at the Altars of Heaven and Earth, but the sixty animals seen in the days of Kienlung, by Bell, have since dwindled to one or two.  Van Braam met six going into Peking, sent thither from Yun-Nan.”  These were no doubt carrying tribute from Burmah.—­H.  C.] It is worth noticing that the housings of cut cloth or applique work ("draps entaillez”) are still in fashion in India for the caparison of elephants.

NOTE 4.—­In 1263 Kublai adopted the Chinese fashion of worshipping the tablets of his own ancestors, and probably at the same time the adoration of his own tablet by his subjects was introduced.  Van Braam ingenuously relates how he and the rest of the Dutch Legation of 1794 performed the adoration of the Emperor’s Tablet on first entering China, much in the way described in the text.

There is a remarkable amplification in the last paragraph of the chapter as given by Ramusio:  “When all are in their proper places, a certain great personage, or high prelate as it were, gets up and says with a loud voice:  ‘Bow yourselves and adore!’ On this immediately all bend and bow the forehead to the ground.  Then the prelate says again:  ’God save and keep our Lord the Emperor, with length of years and with mirth and happiness.’  And all answer:  ‘So may it be!’ And then again the prelate says:  ’May God increase and augment his Empire and its prosperity more and more, and keep all his subjects in peace and goodwill, and may all things go well throughout his Dominion!’ And all again respond:  ‘So may it be!’ And this adoration is repeated four times.”

One of Pauthier’s most interesting notes is a long extract from the official Directory of Ceremonial under the Mongol Dynasty, which admirably illustrates the chapters we have last read.  I borrow a passage regarding this adoration:  “The Musician’s Song having ceased, the Ministers shall recite with a loud voice the following Prayer:  ’Great Heaven, that extendest over all!  Earth which art under the guidance of Heaven!  We invoke You and beseech You to heap blessings upon the Emperor and the Empress!  Grant that they may live ten thousand, a hundred thousand years!’