Not with such complete authority as the Great Kaan, who
remains supreme as long as he lives.
Now I am going to tell you of the chief city of Cathay, in which these
Palaces stand; and why it was built, and how.
NOTE 1. - [According to the Ch'ue keng lu, translated by Bretschneider,
25, "the wall surrounding the palace ... is constructed of bricks, and is
35 ch'i in height. The construction was begun in A.D. 1271, on the 17th
of the 8th month, between three and five o'clock in the afternoon, and
finished next year on the 15th of the 3rd month." - H. C.]
NOTE 2. - Tarcasci (G. T.) This word is worthy of note as the proper form
of what has become in modern French carquois. The former is a transcript
of the Persian Tarkash; the latter appears to be merely a corruption of
it, arising perhaps clerically from the constant confusion of c and t
in MSS. (See Defremery, quoted by Pauthier, in loco.) [Old French
tarquais (13th century), Hatzfeldt and Darmesteter's Dict. gives;
"Coivres orent ceinz et tarchais." (WACE, Rou, III., 7698; 12th
century).]
NOTE 3. - ["It seems to me [Dr. Bretschneider] that Polo took the towers,
mentioned by the Chinese author, in the angles of the galleries and of the
Kung-ch'eng for palaces; for further on he states, that 'over each gate
[of Cambaluc] there is a great and handsome palace.' I have little doubt
that over the gates of Cambaluc, stood lofty buildings similar to those
over the gates of modern Peking.
