asters, and
are bound to provide a certain number of camels and horses, to carry the
baggage of the king and the nobles. As these journeys take place in the
depth of winter, the animals find little food, especially when, after
leaving the Land of Grass, they enter upon the districts cultivated by
the Chinese; and a great number of them, accordingly, die on the road.
Hence, when the caravan returns, it is far from being in such good order
and condition as when it started; it presents, one might almost say,
merely the skeletons of the animals. Those which have still retained a
little strength are laden with the baggage necessary on the way; the
others are dragged along by the halter, scarcely able to move one leg
before the other. It is a very sad, and, at the same time, singular
thing, to see the Mongols walking on foot, and leading behind them horses
which they dare not mount for fear of breaking them down.

As soon as the tributary kings are arrived at Peking, they repair to the
interior of the city, where they inhabit a quarter especially set apart
for them. They are generally two hundred in number, each of whom has his
palace or inn, which he occupies, with his retinue. A Mandarin, a grand
dignitary of the realm, superintends this quarter, and has it in charge
to maintain peace and concord amongst these illustrious visitors. The
tributes are transferred to the care of a special Mandarin, whom we may
consider as steward of the household.

During their stay at Peking, these monarchs have no communication with
the Emperor, no solemn audience. Some of them may perchance obtain
admittance to the throne; but it is only upon affairs of the highest
importance, above the jurisdiction of the ordinary ministers.

On the first day of the year, however, there is a solemn ceremony, at
which these two hundred monarchs are admitted to a sort of contact with
their suzerain and master, with him who, as they phrase it, sitting
beneath the sky, rules the four seas and the ten thousand nations of the
world by a single act of his will. According to the ritual which
regulates the state proceedings of the Emperor of China, he is bound to
visit every year, on the first day of the first moon, the temple of his
ancestors, and to prostrate himself before the tablet of his fathers.
There is before the entrance of this temple a long avenue, wherein the
tributary princes, who have come to Peking to render homage to the
Emperor, assemble.