On certain days, sacred to his gods, the King Facfur[1] used to hold a great court and give a feast to his chief lords, dignitaries, and rich manufacturers of the city of Kinsay.  On such occasions those pavilions used to give ample accommodation for 10,000 persons sitting at table.  This court lasted for ten or twelve days, and exhibited an astonishing and incredible spectacle in the magnificence of the guests, all clothed in silk and gold, with a profusion of precious stones; for they tried to outdo each other in the splendour and richness of their appointments.  Behind this great Pavilion that faced the great gate, there was a wall with a passage in it shutting off the inner part of the Palace.  On entering this you found another great edifice in the form of a cloister surrounded by a portico with columns, from which opened a variety of apartments for the King and the Queen, adorned like the outer walls with such elaborate work as we have mentioned.  From the cloister again you passed into a covered corridor, six paces in width, of great length, and extending to the margin of the lake.  On either side of this corridor were ten courts, in the form of oblong cloisters surrounded by colonnades; and in each cloister or court were fifty chambers with gardens to each.  In these chambers were quartered one thousand young ladies in the service of the King.  The King would sometimes go with the Queen and some of these maidens to take his diversion on the Lake, or to visit the Idol-temples, in boats all canopied with silk.

The other two parts of the enclosure were distributed in groves, and lakes, and charming gardens planted with fruit-trees, and preserves for all sorts of animals, such as roe, red-deer, fallow-deer, hares, and rabbits.  Here the King used to take his pleasure in company with those damsels of his; some in carriages, some on horseback, whilst no man was permitted to enter.  Sometimes the King would set the girls a-coursing after the game with dogs, and when they were tired they would hie to the groves that overhung the lakes, and leaving their clothes there they would come forth naked and enter the water and swim about hither and thither, whilst it was the King’s delight to watch them; and then all would return home.  Sometimes the King would have his dinner carried to those groves, which were dense with lofty trees, and there would be waited on by those young ladies.  And thus he passed his life in this constant dalliance with women, without so much as knowing what arms meant!  And the result of all this cowardice and effeminacy was that he lost his dominion to the Great Kaan in that base and shameful way that you have heard.[NOTE 11]

All this account was given me by a very rich merchant of Kinsay when I was in that city.  He was a very old man, and had been in familiar intimacy with the King Facfur, and knew the whole history of his life; and having seen the Palace in its glory was pleased to be my guide over it.  As it is occupied by the King appointed by the Great Kaan, the first pavilions are still maintained as they used to be, but the apartments of the ladies are all gone to ruin and can only just be traced.  So also the wall that enclosed the groves and gardens is fallen down, and neither trees nor animals are there any longer.[NOTE 12]]