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Robotripping: Palaces
Here We Are...
\*In the garden of the great palace there is a mountain on which there is another palace, and it is the finest and richest one could imagine
\*All the walls are covered with red skins that are from animals called pacies
\*These skins are as red as blood, and so shiny in the sun that one can barely look at them.
\* In the middle of the palace there is a raised platform that is adorned everywhere with gold and precious stones and large pearls
\*All around there are large gold nets, and cloths made of silk and gold hang everywhere from this platform
\*At the head of the hall is the emperor’s throne which is made of fine precious stones bordered all around with fine gold
\*The steps to the platform are all made of different precious stones and set in gold.
\*The emperor has his table all to himself that is made of gold and precious stones and white or yellow crystal bordered with gold and stones-
\*Whether with amethyst, or with lignum aloes, which comes from Paradise, or with ivory set in and bordered with gold.
\*At great feasts, gold tables are brought in with gold peacocks or other kinds of birds all made of gold and enameled and very nobly wrought-
\*And they are made to dance and flutter and beat their wings, and great tricks are done with them
\*All the vessels with which food is served in his halls and his rooms are made of precious stones
\*All their goblets are of emeralds and sapphires, of topazes, peridots, and many other stones.
\*They do not value silver enough to make vessels from it, but they use it to make steps and pillars and paved floors in the halls and rooms.
#### All excerpts from **The Book of John Mandeville -** Chapter 23 _(About the Great Chan of Cathay. About the Royal Dignity of His Palace. And How He Sits to Eat and About the Large Number of Servants Who Serve Him)_ E**dited and translated by Iain Macleod Higgins, Hackett Publishing, 2011** First appeared ca. 1357
