Page:The lives of celebrated travellers (Volume 1).djvu/26

 yet hospitable to strangers, and so inaccessible to the feelings of jealousy that they cared not upon whom their wives bestowed their favours. Hogs, wax, honey, and furs of various kinds constituted the whole of their wealth. At length, after a long and a wearisome journey, which was rendered doubly irksome by their ignorance of the language of the people, and the stupid and headstrong character of their interpreter, they arrived on the 1st of July at the camp of Sartak, three days' journey west of the Volga.

The court of this Tartar prince exhibited that species of magnificence which may be supposed most congruous with the ideas of barbarians: ample tents, richly caparisoned horses, and gorgeous apparel.—Rubruquis and his suit entered the royal tent in solemn procession, with their rich clerical ornaments, church plate, and illuminated missals borne before them, holding a splendid copy of the Scriptures in their hands, wearing their most sumptuous vestments, and thundering forth, as they moved along, the "Salve Regina!" This pompous movement, which gave the mission the appearance of being persons of consequence, and thus flattered the vanity of Sartak, was not altogether impolitic; but it had one evil consequence; for, although it probably heightened the politeness of their reception, the sight of their sacred vessels, curious missals, and costly dresses excited the cupidity of the Nestorian priests, and cost Rubruquis dearly, many valuable articles being afterward sequestrated when he was leaving Tartary.

It now appeared that the reports of Sartak's conversion to Christianity, which had probably been circulated in Christendom by the vanity of the Nestorians, were wholly without foundation; and with respect to the other points touched upon in the letters of the French king, the khan professed himself unable to make any reply without the counsel of his father