ed in their clothes and
buildings, and in the keeping multitudes of servants or slaves, and,
which is to the last degree ridiculous, their contempt of all the world
but themselves.

I must confess, I travelled more pleasantly afterwards, in the deserts
and vast wildernesses of Grand Tartary, than here; and yet the roads
here are well paved and well kept, and very convenient for travellers:
but nothing was more awkward to me, than to see such a haughty,
imperious, insolent people, in the midst of the grossest simplicity and
ignorance; for all their famed ingenuity is no more. My friend Father
Simon, and I, used to be very merry upon these occasions, to see the
beggarly pride of those people. For example, coming by the house of a
country-gentleman, as Father Simon called him, about ten leagues off
from the city of Nanquin, we had, first of all, the honour to ride with
the master of the house about two miles; the state he rode in was a
perfect Don Quixotism, being a mixture of pomp and poverty.

The habit of this greasy Don was very proper for a scaramouch, or
merry-andrew; being a dirty calico, with all the tawdry trappings of a
fool's coat, such as hanging sleeves, taffety, and cuts and slashes
almost on every side: it covered a rich taffety vest, as greasy as a
butcher, and which testified, that his honour must needs be a most
exquisite sloven.

His horse was a poor, lean, starved, hobbling creature, such as in
England might sell for about thirty or forty shillings; and he had two
slaves followed him on foot, to drive the poor creature along: he had a
whip in his hand, and he belaboured the beast as fast about the head as
his slaves did about the tail; and thus he rode by us with about ten or
twelve servants; and we were told he was going from the city to his
country-seat, about half a league before us. We travelled on gently, but
this figure of a gentleman rode away before us; and as we stopped at a
village about an hour to refresh us, when we came by the country-seat of
this great man, we saw him in a little place before his door, eating his
repast; it was a kind of a garden, but he was easy to be seen; and we
were given to understand, that the more we looked on him, the better he
would be pleased.

He sat under a tree, something like the palmetto-tree, which effectually
shaded him over the head, and on the south side; but under the tree also
was placed a large umbrella, which made that part look well enough: he