Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/233

221 RUMOURED CONVERSION OF SARTAK. 221 to an audience they should bring with them their hooks and sacred vessels, and accordingly the monks clothed themselves for the occasion in their richest vestments. Rubruk held in his hands a beautiful Bible that he had received from King Louis, and a psalter of great price, splendidly illuminated, which the Queen had presented to him ; his companion bore a missal and the cross, and the clerk was provided with a censer ; and thus they advanced in procession towards the tent of Sartak. The piece of felt that hung before the en- trance of the tent was raised, that those within might witness their approach in this grand state ; but they were warned to take care, in passing, not to touch the threshold, and advised to raise some benedictory hymn for the prince. They entered the tent chanting the " Salve Regina" and Sartak and his wives examined, with the closest curiosity, the books and vestments of the monks. "The prince, having taken the Bible, inquired whether that was the Gospel ; I replied, that that book contained the entire Holy Scripture ; and seeing a figure on the cross, he asked whether that was Jesus Christ. We answered that it was, and we perceived by that that the Nestorian Christians and Armenians never put a figure on their crosses, so that it would seem that either they do not believe in the Passion of the Son of God, or are ashamed of it." Rubruk profited by this audience to present to Sartak the letters of St. Louis, with two translations, one in Arabic, the other in Syriac; and the prince, having made out their contents, told him that if they wished to remain in the country, they must obtain