l built, and richly
furnished, and adorned with pictures and other ornaments of immense price;
and they exercise their trades with great integrity. The whole inhabitants
are idolaters, of a very fair complexion, and mostly dressed in silken
garments, as silk is produced in great abundance in their neighbourhood, or
brought from other places. They dwell together in great amity, insomuch,
that the inhabitants of a street seem only to compose one family, and are
particularly circumspect in their behaviour to females, as it would be
reputed exceedingly disgraceful to use any indecorous language to a married
woman. The natives are of a most peaceable disposition, and no way addicted
to strife or quarrelling, and altogether unused to arms, which they do not
even keep in their houses. They are extremely hospitable to foreign
merchants, whom they entertain kindly in their houses, giving them the best
advice in regard to the conduct of their affairs: But they are by no means
fond of the soldiers and guards of the great khan, as by their means they
have been deprived of their natural kings and rulers. About the lake there
are many fair buildings and palaces of the principal men, and numerous idol
temples, with monasteries of idolatrous priests. There are two islands in
the lake, on each of which is a palace, containing an incredible number of
rooms, to which they resort on occasion of marriages and other festivals.
In these palaces, abundance of plate, linens, and all other things
necessary for such purposes, are kept up at the common expence, and
sometimes 100 separate companies are accommodated at one time in the
several apartments. In the lake also there are vast numbers of pleasure
boats and barges, adorned with fair seats and tables under cover, being
flat on the tops, where men stand to push the boats along with poles, as
the lake is very shallow. These are all painted within, and have windows to
open or shut at pleasure. Nothing in the world can be more pleasant or
delightful than this lake, from its immense variety of rich objects on all
sides; particularly the city ornamented with so many temples, monasteries,
palaces, gardens, trees, barges, and innumerable people taking their
recreations; for they ordinarily work only a part of each day, spending the
remainder in parties of pleasure with their friends, or with women, either
on the lake, or in driving through the city in chariots. All the streets
are paved with stone, as a