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expenses
and who residein a palace where that
business is transacted, to whom they
deliver a statement in writing of
the quantity furnished to them in
the preceding year, according to which
they receive also for the present.
He provides in like manner for their
clothing, which he has the means of
doing from his tenths of wool, silk,
and hemp. These materials he has woven
into the different sorts of cloth,
in a house erected for that purpose,
where every artisan is obliged to
work one day in the week for his majesty's
service. Garments made of stuffs thus
manufactured he orders to be given
to the poor families above described,
as they are wanted for their winter
and their summer dresses. HE also
has clothing prepared for his armies,
and in every city has a quantity of
woollen cloth woven, which is paid
for from the amount of the tenths
levied at the place.
It
should be known that the Tartars,
when they followed their original
customs, and had not yet adopted the
religion of the idolaters, were not
in the practice of bestowing alms,
and when a necessitous man applied
to them they drove him away with injurious
expressions, saying, 'Begone with
your complaint of a bad season which
God has sent you; had he loved you,
as it appears he loves me, you would
have prospered as I do.' But since
the wise men of the idolaters, and
especially the baksis, already mentioned,
have represented to his majesty that
providing for the poor is a good work
and highly acceptable to their deities,
he has relieved their wants in the
manner stated, and at his court none
are denied food who come to ask it.
Not a day passes in which there are
not distributed, by the regular officers,
twenty thousand vessels of rice, millet,
and panicum. By reason of this admirable
and astonishing liberality which the
grand khan exercises toward the poor,
the people all adore him as a divinity.
CHAPTER
XXV: Of the astrologers of the city
of Kanbalu.
There
are in the city of Kanbalu, amongst
Christians, Saracens and Cathaian,
about five thousand astrologers and
prognosticators, for whose food and
clothing the grand khan provides in
the same manner as he does for the
poor families above mentioned, and
who are in the constant exercise of
their art. They have astrolabes, upon
which are described the planetary
signs, the hours (at which they pass
the meridian), and their several aspects
for the whole year. The astrologers
(or almanac-makers) of each distinct
sect annually proceed to the examination
of their respective tables, in order
to ascertain from thence the course
of the heavenly bodies, and their
relative positions for every lunation.
They discover therein what the state
of the weather shall be, from the
paths and configurations of the planets
in the different signs, and thence
foretell the peculiar phenomena of
each month: that in such a month,
for instance, there shall be thunder
and storms; in such another, earthquakes;
in another, strokes of lightning and
violent rains; in another, diseases,
mortality, wars, discords and conspiracies.
As they find the matter in their astrolabes,
so they declare it will come to pass;
adding, however, that God, according
to his good pleasure, may do more
or less than they have set down. They
write their predictions for the year
upon certain small squares, which
are called, and these they sell, for
a groat apiece, to all persons who
are desirous of peering into futurity.
Those whose predictions are found
to be the most generally correct are
esteemed the most perfect masters
of their art, and are consequently
the most honored. When any person
forms the design of executing some
great work, of performing a distant
journey in the way of commerce, or
of commencing any other undertaking,
and is desirous of knowing what success
may be likely to attend it, he has
recourse to one of these astrologers,
and informing him that he is about
to proceed on such an expeditions,
inquires in what disposition the heavens
appear to be at the time. The latter
thereupon tells him, that before he
can answer, it is necessary he should
be informed of the year, the month
and the hour in which he was born;
and that, having learned these particulars,
he will then proceed to ascertain
in what respects the constellation
that was in the ascendant at his nativity
corresponds with the aspect of the
celestial bodies at the time of his
making the inquiry. Upon this comparison
he grounds his prediction of the favorable
or unfavorable termination of the
adventure.
It
should be observed that the Tartars
compute their time by a cycle of twelve
years; to the first of which they
give the name of the Lion; to the
second year, that of the Ox; to the
third, the dragon; to the fourth,
the dog; and so the rest until the
whole of twelve signs have elapsed.
When a person, therefore is asked
in what year he was born, he replies,
In the course of the year of the lion,
upon such a day, at such an hour and
minute, all of which has been carefully
noted by his parents in a book. Upon
that completion of the twelve years
of the cycle, they return to the first,
and continually repeat the same series.
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