NOTE 4.–[’The accounts given by Marco Polo regarding the feasts of the
Khan and the festival dresses at his Court, agree perfectly with the
statements on the same subject of contemporary Chinese writers. Banquets
were called in the common Mongol language _chama_, and festival dresses
_chisun_. General festivals used to be held at the New Year and at the
Birthday of the Khan. In the _Mongol-Chinese Code_, the ceremonies
performed in the provinces on the Khan”s Birthday are described. One month
before that day the civil and military officers repaired to a temple,
where a service was performed to the Khan”s health. On the morning of the
Birthday a sumptuously adorned table was placed in the open air, and the
representatives of all classes and all confessions were obliged to
approach the table, to prostrate themselves and exclaim three times:
_Wan-sui_ (i.e. “Ten thousand years” life to the Khan). After that the
banquet took place. In the same code (in the article on the _Ye li ke un_
[Christians, _Erke-un_]) it is stated, that in the year 1304,–owing to a
dispute, which had arisen in the province of Kiang-nan between the
_ho-shang_ (Buddhist priests) and the Christian missionaries, as to
precedence in the above-mentioned ceremony,–a special edict was published,
in which it was decided that in the rite of supplication, Christians should
follow the Buddhist and Taouist priests.’ (_Palladius_, pp. 44-45.)–H. C.]