What might this be?  A thousand fantasies
Begin to throng into my memory,
Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire,
And airy tongues that syllable men’s names
On sands and shores and desert wildernesses.

At last they arrived safely at Tangut in the extreme north-west of China, and, skirting the frontier across the great steppes of Mongolia, they were greeted by the Khan’s people, who had been sent forward to meet them at the distance of forty days’ journey, and so at last they reached his presence in the May of 1275, having journeyed for three years and a half.

The Great Khan received the Polos kindly, listened attentively to the account which they gave of their mission, commended them for their zeal and fidelity, and received the holy oil and the Pope’s gifts with reverence.  He then observed the boy Marco, now a ‘young gallant’ and personable enough, no doubt, and inquired who he was, and Nicolo made answer, ‘Sire, this is your servant, and my son,’ to which the Khan replied, ‘He is welcome, and much it pleases me,’ and enrolled Marco among his own attendants.  It was the beginning of a long and close association, for Kublai Khan soon found that Marco Polo was both discreet and intelligent, and began to employ him on various missions.  Moreover, Marco, for his part, found that the Great Khan was always desirous of learning the manners and customs of the many tribes over whom he ruled.  Kublai had to the full that noble curiosity which is the beginning of wisdom, and it irked him exceedingly that his envoys, good conscientious men, followed their noses upon his business, looking neither to right nor to left, and as like as not never even noticed that among the aboriginal hill tribes of the interior called Miaotzu there prevailed the peculiar and entertaining custom of the couvade, wherein

Chinese go to bed
And lie in, in their ladies’ stead.[18]

‘The Prince, in consequence,’ says Marco, ’held them for no better than fools and dolts and would say, “I had far liever hearken about the strange things and the manners of the different countries you have seen than merely be told of the business you went upon,"’

Very different was the habit of the Venetian, who as a lad, had lent ear so readily to swarthy sailors on the Rialto.  He quickly picked up several of the languages current in the Great Khan’s empire, and here is his account of his proceedings when on a mission to foreign parts: 

Perceiving that the Great Khan took a pleasure in hearing accounts of whatever was new to him respecting the customs and manners of people, and the peculiar circumstances of distant countries, he endeavoured, wherever he went, to obtain correct information on these subjects and made notes of all he saw and heard, in order to gratify the curiosity of his master.  In short, during seventeen years that he continued in his service, he rendered himself so useful, that he was employed