Page:The lives of celebrated travellers (Volume 1).djvu/32

 shining fur, something resembling seal-skin, was seated on a small couch. He was a man of about forty-five, of middling stature, with a thick flat nose. His queen, a young and beautiful woman, was seated near him, together with one of his daughters by a former wife, a princess of marriageable age, and a great number of young children.

The first question put to them by the khan was, what they would drink; there being upon the table four species of beverage,—wine, cerasine, or rice-*wine, milk, and a sort of metheglin. They replied that they were no great drinkers, but would readily taste of whatever his majesty might please to command; upon which the khan directed his cupbearer to place cerasine before them. The Turcoman interpreter, who was a man of very different mettle, and perhaps thought it a sin to permit the khan's wine to lie idle, had meanwhile conceived a violent affection for the cupbearer, and had so frequently put his services in requisition, that whether he was in the imperial tent or in a Frank tavern was to him a matter of some doubt. Mangou himself had pledged his Christian guests somewhat too freely; and in order to allow his brain leisure to adjust itself, and at the same time to excite the wonder of the strangers by his skill in falconry, commanded various kinds of birds of prey to be brought, each of which he placed successively upon his hand, and considered with that steady sagacity which men a little touched with wine are fond of exhibiting.

Having assiduously regarded the birds long enough to evince his imperial contempt of politeness, Mangou desired the ambassadors to speak. Rubruquis obeyed, and delivered an harangue of some length, which, considering the muddy state of the interpreter's brain and the extremely analogous condition of the khan's, may very safely be supposed to have been dispersed, like the rejected prayers of the Homeric heroes, in empty air. In reply, as he wittily