At Chandu, three days’ journey south-west of Changanor, they beheld the stupendous palace which Kublai Khan had erected in that city. Neither the dimensions nor the architecture are described by Marco Polo, but it is said to have been constructed, with singular art and beauty, of marble and other precious materials. The grounds of this palace, which were surrounded by a wall, were sixteen miles in circumference, and were beautifully laid out into meadows, groves, and lawns, watered by sparkling streams, and abundantly stocked with red and fallow deer, and other animals of the chase. In this park the khan had a mew of falcons, which, when at the palace, he visited once a week, and caused to be fed with the flesh of young fawns. Tame leopards were employed in hunting the stag, and, like the chattah, or tiger, used for the same purpose in the Carnatic, were carried out on horseback to the scene of action, and let loose only when the game appeared. In the midst of a tall grove, there was an elegant pavilion, or summer-house, of wood, supported on pillars, and glittering with the richest gilding. Against each pillar stood the figure of a dragon, likewise richly gilt, with its tail curling round the shaft, its head touching the roof, and its wings extended on both sides through the intercolumniations. The roof was composed of split bamboos gilded and varnished, and so skilfully shelving over each other that no rain could ever penetrate between them. This beautiful structure could easily be taken to pieces or re-erected, like a tent, and, to prevent it from being overthrown by the wind, was fastened to the earth by two hundred silken ropes. At this palace the khan regularly spent the three summer months of June, July, and August, leaving it on the 28th of the last-named month, in order to proceed towards the south. Eight days previous to his departure, however, having solemnly consulted his astrologers, the khan annually offered sacrifice to the gods and spirits of the earth, the ceremony consisting in sprinkling a quantity of white mare’s milk upon the ground with his own hands, at the same time praying for the prosperity of his subjects, wives, and children. Kublai Khan was in no danger of wanting milk for this sacrifice, since he possessed a stud of horses, nearly ten thousand in number, all so purely white, that like certain Homeric steeds, they might, without vanity, have traced their origin to Boreas, the father of the snow. Indeed, much of this imperial nectar must have streamed in libations to mother earth on less solemn occasions; since none but persons of the royal race of Genghis Khan were permitted to drink of it, with the exception of one single family, named Boriat, to whom this distinguished privilege had been granted by Genghis for their prowess and valour.