He Is Of A Good Stature, Neither
Tall Nor Short, But Of A Middle Height.
He has a becoming amount of flesh,
and is very shapely in all his limbs.
His complexion is white and red, the
eyes black and fine,[NOTE 1] the nose well formed and well set on. He has
four wives, whom he retains permanently as his legitimate consorts; and
the eldest of his sons by those four wives ought by rights to be
emperor; - I mean when his father dies. Those four ladies are called
empresses, but each is distinguished also by her proper name. And each of
them has a special court of her own, very grand and ample; no one of them
having fewer than 300 fair and charming damsels. They have also many pages
and eunuchs, and a number of other attendants of both sexes; so that each
of these ladies has not less than 10,000 persons attached to her
court.[NOTE 2]
When the Emperor desires the society of one of these four consorts, he
will sometimes send for the lady to his apartment and sometimes visit her
at her own. He has also a great number of concubines, and I will tell you
how he obtains them.
You must know that there is a tribe of Tartars called UNGRAT, who are
noted for their beauty. Now every year an hundred of the most beautiful
maidens of this tribe are sent to the Great Kaan, who commits them to the
charge of certain elderly ladies dwelling in his palace.
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