Stops, as I have told you also, the month of September, to keep
his Birthday Feast, and also throughout October, November, December,
January, and February, in which last month he keeps the grand feast of the
New Year, which they call the White Feast, as you have heard already with
all particulars. He then sets out on his march towards the Ocean Sea,
hunting and hawking, and continues out from the beginning of March to the
middle of May; and then comes back for three days only to the capital,
during which he makes merry with his wives, and holds a great court and
grand entertainments. In truth, 'tis something astonishing, the
magnificence displayed by the Emperor in those three days; and then he
starts off again as you know.
Thus his whole year is distributed in the following manner: six months at
his chief palace in the royal city of Cambaluc, to wit, September,
October, November, December, January, February;
Then on the great hunting expedition towards the sea, March, April, May;
Then back to his palace at Cambaluc for three days;
Then off to the city of Chandu which he has built, and where the Cane
Palace is, where he stays June, July, August;
Then back again to his capital city of Cambaluc.
So thus the whole year is spent; six months at the capital, three months
in hunting, and three months at the Cane Palace to avoid the heat. And in
this way he passes his time with the greatest enjoyment; not to mention
occasional journeys in this or that direction at his own pleasure.
NOTE 1. - This chapter, with its wearisome and whimsical reiteration,
reminding one of a game of forfeits, is peculiar to that class of MSS.
which claims to represent the copy given to Thibault de Cepoy by Marco
Polo.
Dr. Bushell has kindly sent me a notice of a Chinese document (his
translation of which he had unfortunately mislaid), containing a minute
contemporary account of the annual migration of the Mongol Court to
Shangtu. Having traversed the Kiu Yung Kwan (or Nankau) Pass, where stands
the great Mongol archway represented at the end of this volume, they left
what is now the Kalgan post-road at Tumuyi, making straight for
Chaghan-nor (supra, p. 304), and thence to Shangtu. The return journey in
autumn followed the same route as far as Chaghan-nor, where some days were
spent in fowling on the lakes, and thence by Siuen-hwa fu ("Sindachu,"
supra, p. 295) and the present post-road to Cambaluc.
CHAPTER XXII.
CONCERNING THE CITY OF CAMBALUC, AND ITS GREAT TRAFFIC AND POPULATION.
You must know that the city of Cambaluc hath such a multitude of houses,
and such a vast population inside the walls and outside, that it seems
quite past all possibility.
