Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/241

THE GRAND KIIAN AND THE MISSIONARIES. 229 that he did not insist further ; and Rubruk, for his part, was so little disposed to make concessions, that he says of the Tartars in some part of his narrative, ' These proud and arrogant men believe that the whole world desires their favour ; yet, truly, if it were per- mitted to my profession, and knowing what they are, I should rather advise the making war upon them and fighting them to the last extremity.' " On the 4th of January, 1254, the missionaries were admitted to an audience of the Grand Khan. " The felt curtain before the door of the palace was drawn up when we entered," says Rubruk, " and as it was still the Christmas season, we began to sing the hymn, — ' A solis ortus cardine Et usque terra? limitem Christum canamus principem Natum Maria virgine,' &c. " When we had finished, some attendants began to rummage our garments all over, to see whether we had any knife concealed in them, and they obliged our interpreter to leave his girdle and his knife at the door, where there was a bench with kumys upon it ; and after that, they placed us on a bench opposite some ladies, and made our interpreter stand near us. The place was all hung with cloth of gold, and there was in the midst a chafing-dish filled with a fire made of dried dung, and the roots and thorns of the wormwood which grows in that country in great abundance. The Grand Khan was seated on a small bed, and clothed in a rich furred robe very lustrous, like the skin of a sea-calf. He was a man of about forty-five years of age, of a middle height, and with a blunt flat nose. His wife, who was seated q 3