and costly manner.[NOTE 1] And along with each of these changes of
raiment, i.e. 13 times in the year, he bestows on each of those 12,000
Barons a fine golden girdle of great richness and value, and likewise a
pair of boots of _Camut_, that is to say of _Borgal_, curiously wrought
with silver thread; insomuch that when they are clothed in these dresses
every man of them looks like a king![NOTE 2] And there is an established
order as to which dress is to be worn at each of those thirteen feasts.
The Emperor himself also has his thirteen suits corresponding to those of
his Barons; in _colour_, I mean (though his are grander, richer, and
costlier), so that he is always arrayed in the same colour as his Barons,
who are, as it were, his comrades. And you may see that all this costs an
amount which it is scarcely possible to calculate.

Now I have told you of the thirteen changes of raiment received from the
Prince by those 12,000 Barons, amounting in all to 156,000 suits of so
great cost and value, to say nothing of the girdles and the boots which
are also worth a great sum of money. All this the Great Lord hath ordered,
that he may attach the more of grandeur and dignity to his festivals.

And now I must mention another thing that I had forgotten, but which you
will be astonished to learn from this Book. You must know that on the
Feast Day a great Lion is led to the Emperor's presence, and as soon as it
sees him it lies down before him with every sign of the greatest
veneration, as if it acknowledged him for its lord; and it remains there
lying before him, and entirely unchained. Truly this must seem a strange
story to those who have not seen the thing![NOTE 3]

NOTE 1.--On the _Keshican_, see note 1 to chap. xii., and on the changes
of raiment note 3 to chap. xiv., and the remarks there as to the number of
distributions. I confess that the stress laid upon the number 13 in this
chapter makes the supposition of error more difficult. But there is
something odd and unintelligible about the whole of the chapter except the
last paragraph. For the 12,000 _Keshican_ are here all elevated to
_Barons_; and at the same time the statement about their changes of
raiment seems to be merely that already made in chapter xiv. This
repetition occurs only in the French MSS., but as it is in all these we
cannot reject it.

NOTE 2.--The words _Camut_ and _Borgal_ appear both to be used here for
what we call _Russia-Leather_. The latter wo