e other governors on the frontiers. At each
stage the ambassadors were furnished with 450 horses, mules, and asses, and
fifty-six chariots or waggons. The servants who tended the horses were
called _Ba-fu_; the muleteers, who had charge of the mules and the
asses,_Lu-fu_; and the men who drew the chariots, _Jip-fu_. These chariots
were each drawn by twelve young men with cords on their shoulders, and they
dragged through all difficulties from one lodging to another, the _Ba-fu_
always running before as guides. At all the lodging places, where the
ambassadors and their retinue stopped nightly, provisions were always found
in abundance. At every city the ambassadors were feasted in a hall set
apart for that special purpose, called _Rasun_, in each of which there
stood an imperial throne under a canopy, with curtains at the sides, the
throne always facing towards the capital of the empire. At the foot of the
throne there always was a great carpet, on which the ambassadors sat,
having their people ranked in regular rows behind them, like the Moslems at
their prayers. When all were properly arranged, a guard beside the throne
gave a signal, by calling out aloud three times; on which all the Kathayan
officers bowed their heads to the ground towards the throne, and obliged
the ambassadors to make a similar reverence; after which every one sate
down to his appointed table.

On the twenty-fifth of Ramazan, the dankji, or governor of Kan-chew invited
the ambassadors to a feast, intimating that they were to consider it as a
banquet given them by the emperor; but as it was the fast of the Moslems,
the ambassadors sent an apology, yet he sent them all the victuals which
had been prepared for the entertainment. In Kanchew they saw a temple, each
side of which extended 500 _kes_ or cubits, having in the middle of it an
idol fifty feet in length, lying as if asleep. The hands and feet of this
gigantic idol were nine feet long, and the head was twenty-one feet round.
There were numbers of smaller idols, each a cubit high, behind this large
one and above his head, in such natural attitudes that they seemed alive.
The great idol was gilt all over, having one hand under his head, and the
other stretched down along his thigh. This idol was called _Samonifu_, and
vast numbers of people were constantly prostrating themselves before him.
The walls were also adorned with many figures. All round the great temple,
there were numerous small temples