Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/226

214 214 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. differ so much in person, manners, and mode of life, from all the nations in the world. They differ in per- son, for they have great broad faces, and eyes so little and narrow, that they look only like small slits in their faces ; they are without beards, and many of them look exactly like upright old baboons. " In manners they differ from other nations, for they have neither courtesy, nor modesty, nor love, nor agree- ableness. They seem to think themselves the owners of all cities, edifices, and habitations ; for wherever they find them, they destroy them, and do most harm to those who humble themselves before them. They de- sire that one should pay them all honour, reverence, and service, and even then they do not take it in good part, but say that all is due to them. They say that they are the true lords of the earth, and that God made the world expressly for them, in order that they might rule over and enjoy it ; they say that the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field, only eat and drink by permission of their emperor. And once it happened that a Frenchman came to the Khan of Tartary, and the emperor asked him what offering he had brought him ; the Frenchman replied, ' Sire, I have brought you nothing, for I did not know of your great power.' ' How,' said the emperor, * did not the very birds, as they flew over the country, tell you of our power?' The Frenchman replied, ' Sire, perhaps they did, but as I do not understand their language, I did not know what they said ; ' and thus the emperor was appeased." Such was the arrogant people, that, in the fifteenth century, seemed for a time to hold in its hands the destinies of the world. "When we entered," says Rubruk, "among these