There is at this place a very fine marble
Palace, the rooms of which are all gilt and painted with figures of men
and beasts and birds, and with a variety of trees and flowers, all
executed with such exquisite art that you regard them with delight and
astonishment.[NOTE 2]
Round this Palace a wall is built, inclosing a compass of 16 miles, and
inside the Park there are fountains and rivers and brooks, and beautiful
meadows, with all kinds of wild animals (excluding such as are of
ferocious nature), which the Emperor has procured and placed there to
supply food for his gerfalcons and hawks, which he keeps there in mew. Of
these there are more than 200 gerfalcons alone, without reckoning the
other hawks. The Kaan himself goes every week to see his birds sitting in
mew, and sometimes he rides through the park with a leopard behind him on
his horse's croup; and then if he sees any animal that takes his fancy, he
slips his leopard at it,[NOTE 3] and the game when taken is made over to
feed the hawks in mew. This he does for diversion.
Moreover [at a spot in the Park where there is a charming wood] he has
another Palace built of cane, of which I must give you a description.
