ct; "Between the year of the Rat (1264), when Kublai was fifty years
old, and the year of the Sheep (1271), in the space of eight years, he
built four great cities, viz. for Summer Residence SHANGTU KEIBUNG Kuerdu
Balgasun, for Winter Residence Yeke DAITU Khotan, and on the shady side of
the Altai (see ch. li. note 3, supra) Arulun TSAGHAN BALGASUN, and
Erchuegin LANGTING Balgasun." A valuable letter from Dr. Bushell enables me
now to indicate the position of Langtin: "The district through which the
river flows eastward from Shangtu is known to the Mongolians of the
present day by the name of _Lang-tirh_ (_Lang-ting'rh_).... The ruins of
the city are marked on a Chinese map in my possession Pai-dseng-tzu, i.e.
'White City,' implying that it was formerly an Imperial residence. The
remains of the wall are 7 or 8 _li_ in diameter, of stone, and situated
about 40 _li_ north-north-west from Dolon-nor."

(_Gerbillon_ in _Astley_, IV. 701-716; Klaproth, in _J. As._ ser. II. tom.
xi. 345-350; _Schott, Die letzten Jahre der Mongolenherrschaft in China_
(Berl. Acad. d. Wissensch. 1850, pp. 502-503); _Huc's Tartary_, etc., p.
seqq.; _Cathay_, 134, 261; _S. Setzen_, p. 115; _Dr. S. W. Bushell,
Journey outside the Great Wall_, in _J. R. G. S._ for 1874, and MS.
notes.)

One of the pavilions of the celebrated Yuen-ming-Yuen may give some idea
of the probable style, though not of the scale, of Kublai's Summer Palace.

Hiuen Tsang's account of the elaborate and fantastic ornamentation of the
famous Indian monasteries at Nalanda in Bahar, where Mr. Broadley has
lately made such remarkable discoveries, seems to indicate that these
fantasies of Burmese and Chinese architecture may have had a direct origin
in India, at a time when timber was still a principal material of
construction there: "The pavilions had pillars adorned with dragons, and
posts that glowed with all the colours of the rainbow, sculptured frets,
columns set with jade, richly chiselled and lackered, with balustrades of
vermilion, and carved open work. The lintels of the doors were tastefully
ornamented, and the roofs covered with shining tiles, the splendours of
which were multiplied by mutual reflection and from moment to moment took
a thousand forms." (_Vie et Voyages_, 157.)

NOTE 3.--[Rubruck says, (_Rockhill_, p. 248): "I saw also the envoy of
a certain Soldan of India, who had brought eight leopards and ten
_greyhounds_, taught to sit on horses' backs, as leopards