with gold, and the orfrayes set full of great pearls and precious stones, full nobly wrought. The third thousand is clothed in cloths of silk, of purple, or of India. And the fourth thousand is in clothes of yellow. And all their clothes are so nobly and richly wrought with gold and precious stones and rich pearls, that if a man of this country had but one of their robes, he might well say that he should never be poor. For the gold and the precious stones, and the great orient pearls, are of greater value on this side the sea than in those countries. And when they are thus apparelled, they go two and two together, full orderly, before the emperor, without uttering a word, only bowing to him. And each of them carries a tablet of jasper, or ivory, or crystal; and the minstrels go before them, sounding their instruments of divers melody. When the first thousand is thus passed, and hath made its muster, it withdraws on the one side; and then enters the second thousand, and proceeds in the same manner of array and countenance as the first; and so the third, and then the fourth; and none of them utters a word. And at one side of the emperor's table sit many philosophers, who are proved for wise men in many divers sciences, as in astronomy, necromancy, geomancy, pyromancy, hydromancy, augury, and many other sciences. And each of them has before him, some, astrolabes of gold, some, spheres, some, the skull of a dead man, some, vessels of gold full of gravel or sand, some, vessels of gold full of burning coals, some, vessels of gold full of water, wine, and oil, and some, horloges (clocks) of gold, made full nobly and richly wrought, and many other sorts of instruments after their sciences. And at certain hours they say to certain officers who stand before them, appointed for the time to fulfil their commands, "Make peace." And then the officers say, "Now peace, listen." And after that another of the philosophers says, "Every man do reverence, and bow to the emperor, who is God's son and sovereign lord of all the world; for now is time." And then every man bows his head towards the earth. And then the same philosopher commands again, "Stand up." And they do so. And at another hour another philosopher says, "Put your little finger in your ears." And anon they do so. And at another hour another philosopher says, "Put your hand before your mouth." And anon they do so. And at another hour another philosopher says, "Put your hand upon your head." And after that he biddeth them to take their hand away, and they do so. And so, from hour to hour, they command certain things. And they say that those things have divers significations. I asked them privately what those things betokened. And one of the masters told me that the bowing of the head at that hour betokened that all those that bowed their heads should evermore after be obedient and true to the emperor. And the putting of the little finger in the ear betokens, as