of which are all gilt and painted with figures of men
and beasts and birds, and with a variety of trees and flowers, all
executed with such exquisite art that you regard them with delight and
astonishment.[NOTE 2]

Round this Palace a wall is built, inclosing a compass of 16 miles, and
inside the Park there are fountains and rivers and brooks, and beautiful
meadows, with all kinds of wild animals (excluding such as are of
ferocious nature), which the Emperor has procured and placed there to
supply food for his gerfalcons and hawks, which he keeps there in mew. Of
these there are more than 200 gerfalcons alone, without reckoning the
other hawks. The Kaan himself goes every week to see his birds sitting in
mew, and sometimes he rides through the park with a leopard behind him on
his horse's croup; and then if he sees any animal that takes his fancy, he
slips his leopard at it,[NOTE 3] and the game when taken is made over to
feed the hawks in mew. This he does for diversion.

Moreover [at a spot in the Park where there is a charming wood] he has
another Palace built of cane, of which I must give you a description. It
is gilt all over, and most elaborately finished inside. [It is stayed on
gilt and lackered columns, on each of which is a dragon all gilt, the tail
of which is attached to the column whilst the head supports the
architrave, and the claws likewise are stretched out right and left to
support the architrave.] The roof, like the rest, is formed of canes,
covered with a varnish so strong and excellent that no amount of rain will
rot them. These canes are a good 3 palms in girth, and from 10 to 15 paces
in length. [They are cut across at each knot, and then the pieces are
split so as to form from each two hollow tiles, and with these the house
is roofed; only every such tile of cane has to be nailed down to prevent
the wind from lifting it.] In short, the whole Palace is built of these
canes, which (I may mention) serve also for a great variety of other
useful purposes. The construction of the Palace is so devised that it can
be taken down and put up again with great celerity; and it can all be
taken to pieces and removed whithersoever the Emperor may command. When
erected, it is braced [against mishaps from the wind] by more than 200
cords of silk.[NOTE 4]

The Lord abides at this Park of his, dwelling sometimes in the Marble
Palace and sometimes in the Cane Palace for three months of the year, to
wit, June, July