the command
of a thousand, and presenting many with vessels of silver, as well as
the customary tablets or warrants of command and of government. The
tablets given to those commanding a hundred men are of silver; to
those commanding a thousand, of gold or of silver gilt; and those who
command ten thousand receive tablets of gold, bearing the head of a
lion; the former being of the weight of a hundred and twenty
_saggi_,[69] and these with the lion's head two hundred and twenty. At
the top of the inscription on the tablet is a sentence to this effect:
"By the power and might of the great God, and through the grace which
he vouchsafes to our empire, be the name of the Khan blessed; and let
all such as disobey (what is herein directed) suffer death and be
utterly destroyed."

The officers who hold these tablets have privileges attached to them,
and in the inscription is specified what are the duties and the powers
of their respective commands. He who is at the head of a hundred
thousand men, or the commander-in-chief of a grand army, has a golden
tablet weighing three hundred saggi, with the sentence above
mentioned, and at the bottom is engraved the figure of a lion,
together with representations of the sun and moon. He exercises also
the privileges of his high command, as set forth in this magnificent
tablet. Whenever he rides in public, an umbrella is carried over his
head, denoting the rank and authority he holds;[70] and when he is
seated, it is always upon a silver chair. The Grand Khan confers
likewise upon certain of his nobles tablets on which are represented
figures of the gerfalcon, in virtue of which they are authorized to
take with them as their guard of honor the whole army of any great
prince. They can also make use of the horses of the imperial stud at
their pleasure, and can appropriate the horses of any officers
inferior to themselves in rank.

Kublai is of the middle stature, that is, neither tall nor short; his
limbs are well formed, and in his whole figure there is a just
proportion. His complexion is fair, and occasionally suffused with
red, like the bright tint of the rose, which adds much grace to his
countenance. His eyes are black and handsome, his nose is well shaped
and prominent. He has four wives of the first rank, who are esteemed
legitimate, and the eldest born son of any one of these succeeds to
the empire upon the decease of the grand khan. They bear equally the
title of "empress," and