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Publishers Newswire Announced Today its Latest List of Books to Bookmark, for Q4/2008
REDONDO BEACH, Calif. -- Publishers Newswire, an online resource for small publishers, as well as lesser known and first-time book authors, has announced its latest quarterly 'Books to Bookmark' list, for Q4/2008. This list is a round-up of new and interesting books which are often missed due to not originating from big name authors, or major New York book publishing houses.

Book, 'Letters From Heroes', captures triumphs of the men and women who served in World War I and II
GILROY, Calif. -- The hardships, struggles, hopes and triumphs of the men and women who served in World War I and World War II is wonderfully captured in 'Letters From Heroes' (ISBN: 978-1-58909-570-0), by Edward T. Cook, a new book just published by Bookstand Publishing. This poignant collection of real letters from real servicemen allow the reader to see things through the eyes of these soldiers and understand their thoughts about war, training, sickness, the enemy and even their food.

In New Book, Mystery of the 6,000 Year Old Science and Art of Astrology Has Been Solved
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- Author of the new book, ASTROMASKS (ISBN: 978-0-615-23386-4), Vijay Rishii Ph.D., announced today that his book reveals the secret code behind the ancient and controversial science of astrology. The author decodes astrology using a new concept of complementary pairs, and gives new meanings to the zodiac signs and their real connection to humans on earth, which has never been done before in the entire history of astrology.

The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 - Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

M >> Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa >> The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1

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"And if the Pope, as was said in the beginning of this book, had sent men
fit to preach our religion, the Grand Kaan would have turned Christian;
for it is an undoubted fact that he greatly desired to do so."

In the simultaneous patronage of different religions, Kublai followed the
practice of his house. Thus Rubruquis writes of his predecessor Mangku
Kaan: "It is his custom, on such days as his diviners tell him to be
festivals, or any of the Nestorian priests declare to be holydays, to hold
a court. On these occasions the Christian priests enter first with their
paraphernalia, and pray for him, and bless his cup. They retire, and then
come the Saracen priests and do likewise; the priests of the Idolaters
follow. He all the while believes in none of them, though they all follow
his court as flies follow honey. He bestows his gifts on all of them, each
party believes itself to be his favourite, and all prophesy smooth things
to him." Abulfaragius calls Kublai "a just prince and a wise, who loved
Christians and honoured physicians of learning, whatsoever their nation."

There is a good deal in Kublai that reminds us of the greatest prince of
that other great Mongol house, Akbar. And if we trusted the first
impression of the passage just quoted from Ramusio, we might suppose that
the grandson of Chinghiz too had some of that real wistful regard towards
the Lord Jesus Christ, of which we seem to see traces in the grandson of
Baber. But with Kublai, as with his predecessors, religion seems to have
been only a political matter; and this aspect of the thing will easily be
recognised in a re-perusal of his conversation with Messer Nicolas and
Messer Maffeo. The Kaan must be obeyed; how man shall worship God is
indifferent; this was the constant policy of his house in the days of its
greatness. Kublai, as Koeppen observes, the first of his line to raise
himself above the natural and systematic barbarism of the Mongols,
probably saw in the promotion of Tibetan Buddhism, already spread to some
extent among them, the readiest means of civilising his countrymen. But he
may have been quite sincere in saying what is here ascribed to him in
_this_ sense, viz.: that if the Latin Church, with its superiority of
character and acquirement, had come to his aid as he had once requested,
he would gladly have used _its_ missionaries as his civilising instruments
instead of the Lamas and their trumpery. (_Rubr._ 313; _Assemani_, III.
pt. ii. 107; _Koeppen_, II. 89, 96.)




CHAPTER VII.

HOW THE KAAN REWARDED THE VALOUR OF HIS CAPTAINS.


So we will have done with this matter of Nayan, and go on with our account
of the great state of the Great Kaan.

We have already told you of his lineage and of his age; but now I must
tell you what he did after his return, in regard to those barons who had
behaved well in the battle. Him who was before captain of 100 he made
captain of 1000; and him who was captain of 1000 men he made to be captain
of 10,000, advancing every man according to his deserts and to his
previous rank. Besides that, he also made them presents of fine silver
plate and other rich appointments; gave them Tablets of Authority of a
higher degree than they held before; and bestowed upon them fine jewels of
gold and silver, and pearls and precious stones; insomuch that the amount
that fell to each of them was something astonishing. And yet 'twas not so
much as they had deserved; for never were men seen who did such feats of
arms for the love and honour of their Lord, as these had done on that day
of the battle.[NOTE 1]

Now those Tablets of Authority, of which I have spoken, are ordered in
this way. The officer who is a captain of 100 hath a tablet of silver; the
captain of 1000 hath a tablet of gold or silver-gilt; the commander of
10,000 hath a tablet of gold, with a lion's head on it. And I will tell
you the weight of the different tablets, and what they denote. The tablets
of the captains of 100 and 1000 weigh each of them 120 _saggi_; and the
tablet with the lion's head engraven on it, which is that of the commander
of 10,000, weighs 220 _saggi_. And on each of the tablets is inscribed a
device, which runs: "_By the strength of the great God, and of the great
grace which He hath accorded to our Emperor, may the name of the Kaan be
blessed; and let all such as will not obey him be slain and be
destroyed_." And I will tell you besides that all who hold these tablets
likewise receive warrants in writing, declaring all their powers and
privileges.

I should mention too that an officer who holds the chief command of
100,000 men, or who is general-in-chief of a great host, is entitled to a
tablet that weighs 300 _saggi_. It has an inscription thereon to the same
purport that I have told you already, and below the inscription there is
the figure of a lion, and below the lion the sun and moon. They have
warrants also of their high rank, command, and power.[NOTE 2] Every one,
moreover, who holds a tablet of this exalted degree is entitled, whenever
he goes abroad, to have a little golden canopy, such as is called an
umbrella, carried on a spear over his head in token of his high command.
And whenever he sits, he sits in a silver chair.[NOTE 3]

To certain very great lords also there is given a tablet with gerfalcons
on it; this is only to the very greatest of the Kaan's barons, and it
confers on them his own full power and authority; so that if one of those
chiefs wishes to send a messenger any whither, he can seize the horses of
any man, be he even a king, and any other chattels at his pleasure.
[NOTE 4]


NOTE 1.--So Sanang Setzen relates that Chinghiz, on returning from one of
his great campaigns, busied himself in reorganising his forces and
bestowing rank and title, according to the deserts of each, on his nine
_Orlok_, or marshals, and all who had done good service. "He named
commandants over hundreds, over thousands, over ten thousands, over
hundred thousands, and opened his treasury to the multitude of the people"
(p. 91).

NOTE 2.--We have several times already had mention of these tablets. (See
Prologue, ch. viii. and xviii.) The earliest European allusion to them is
in Rubruquis: "And Mangu gave to the Moghul (whom he was going to send to
the King of France) a bull of his, that is to say, a golden plate of a
palm in breadth and half a cubit in length, on which his orders were
inscribed. Whosoever is the bearer of that may order what he pleases, and
his order shall be executed straightway."

These golden bulls of the Mongol Kaans appear to have been originally
tokens of high favour and honour, though afterwards they became more
frequent and conventional. They are often spoken of by the Persian
historians of the Mongols under the name of _Paizah_, and sometimes
_Paizah Sir-i-Sher_, or "Lion's Head Paizah." Thus, in a firman of Ghazan
Khan, naming a viceroy to his conquests in Syria, the Khan confers on the
latter "the sword, the august standard, the drum, and the _Lion's Head
Paizah_." Most frequently the grant of this honour is coupled with
_Yarligh_; "to such an one were granted Yarligh and Paizah" the former
word (which is still applied in Turkey to the Sultan's rescripts) denoting
the written patent which accompanies the grant of the tablet, just as the
sovereign's warrant accompanies the badge of a modern Order. Of such
written patents also Marco speaks in this passage, and as he uttered it,
no doubt the familiar words _Yarligh u Paizah_ were in his mind. The
Armenian history of the Orpelians, relating the visit of Prince Sempad,
brother of King Hayton, to the court of Mangku Kaan, says: "They gave him
also a _P'haiza_ of gold, i.e. a tablet whereon the name of God is written
by the Great Kaan himself; and this constitutes the greatest honour known
among the Mongols. Farther, they drew up for him a sort of patent, which
the Mongols call _Iarlekh_," etc. The Latin version of a grant by Uzbek
Khan of Kipchak to the Venetian Andrea Zeno, in 1333,[1] ends with the
words: "_Dedimus_ baisa _et_ privilegium _cum bullis rubeis_," where the
latter words no doubt represent the _Yarligh al-tamgha_, the warrant with
the red seal or stamp,[2] as it may be seen upon the letter of Arghun
Khan. (See plate at ch. xvii. of Bk. IV.). So also Janibek, the son of
Uzbek, in 1344, confers privileges on the Venetians, "_eisdem dando_
baissinum _de auro_"; and again Bardibeg, son, murderer, and successor of
Janibeg, in 1358, writes: "Avemo dado comandamento [i.e. Yarlig] cum le
bolle rosse, et lo _paysam_."

Under the Persian branch, at least, of the house the degree of honour was
indicated by the _number_ of lions' heads upon the plate, which varied
from 1 to 5. The Lion and Sun, a symbol which survives, or has been
revived, in the modern Persian decoration so called, formed the emblem of
the Sun in Leo, i.e. in highest power. It had already been used on the
coins of the Seljukian sovereigns of Persia and Iconium; it appears on
coins of the Mongol Ilkhans Ghazan, Oljaitu, and Abusaid, and it is also
found on some of those of Mahomed Uzbek Khan of Kipchak.

[Illustration: Seljukian Coin with the Lion and Sun.]

Hammer gives regulations of Ghazan Khan's on the subject of the Paizah,
from which it is seen that the latter were of different _kinds_ as well as
degrees. Some were held by great governors and officers of state, and these
were cautioned against letting the Paizah out of their own keeping; others
were for officers of inferior order; and, again, "for persons travelling on
state commissions with post-horses, particular paizah (which Hammer says
were of brass) are appointed, on which their names are inscribed." These
last would seem therefore to be merely such permissions to travel by the
Government post-horses as are still required in Russia, perhaps in lineal
derivation from Mongol practice. The terms of Ghazan's decree and other
contemporary notices show that great abuses were practised with the Paizah,
as an authority for living at free quarters and making other arbitrary
exactions.

[Illustration: "TABLE D'OR DE COMMANDEMENT," THE PAIZA OF THE MONGOLS.
FROM A SPECIMEN FOUND IN E. SIBERIA.]

The word _Paizah_ is said to be Chinese, _Pai-tseu_, "a tablet." A trace
of the name and the thing still survives in Mongolia. The horse-_Bai_ is
the name applied to a certain ornament on the horse caparison, which gives
the rider a title to be furnished with horses and provisions on a journey.

[Illustration: Second Example of a MONGOL PAIZA, with Superscription in
the _Uighur_ Character, found near the River Dnieper, 1845.]

Where I have used the Venetian term _saggio_, the French texts have here
and elsewhere _saics_ and _saies_, and sometimes _pois_. _Saic_ points to
_saiga_, which, according to Dupre de St. Maur, is in the Salic laws the
equivalent of a denier or the twelfth part of a sol. _Saggio_ is possibly
the same word, or rather may have been confounded with it, but the saggio
was a recognised Venetian weight equal to 1/6 of an ounce. We shall see
hereafter that Polo appears to use it to indicate the _miskal_, a weight
which may be taken at 74 grains Troy. On that supposition the smallest
tablet specified in the text would weigh 18-1/2 ozs. Troy.

I do not know if any gold Paizah has been discovered, but several of
silver have been found in the Russian dominions; one near the Dnieper, and
two in Eastern Siberia. The first of our plates represents one of these,
which was found in the Minusinsk circle of the Government of Yenisei in
1846, and is now in the Asiatic Museum of the Academy of St. Petersburg,
For the sake of better illustration of our text, I have taken the liberty
to represent the tablet as of gold, instead of silver with only the
inscription gilt. The moulded ring inserted in the orifice, to suspend the
plate by, is of iron. On the reverse side the ring bears some Chinese
characters engraved, which are interpreted as meaning "Publication No.
42." The inscription on the plate itself is in the Mongol language and
Baspa character (supra, Prologue, note 1, ch. xv.), and its purport is a
remarkable testimony to the exactness of Marco's account, and almost a
proof of his knowledge of the language and character in which the
inscriptions were engraved. It runs, according to Schmidt's version: "_By
the strength of the eternal heaven! May the name of the Khagan be holy!
Who pays him not reverence is to be slain, and must die!_" The
inscriptions on the other plates discovered were essentially similar in
meaning. Our second plate shows one of them with the inscription in the
Uighur character.

The superficial dimensions of the Yenisei tablet, as taken from Schmidt's
full-size drawing, are 12.2 in. by 3.65 in. The weight is not given.

In the French texts nothing is said of the size of the tablets. But
Ramusio's copy in the Prologue, where the tables given by Kiacatu are
mentioned (supra, p. 35), says that they were a cubit in length and 5
fingers in breadth, and weighed 3 to 4 marks each, i.e. 24 to 32 ounces.

(_Dupre de St. Maur_, _Essai sur les Monnoies_, etc., 1746, p. viii.; also
(on _saiga_) see _Pertz_, _Script._ XVII. 357; _Rubruq._ 312; _Golden
Horde_, 219-220, 521; _Ilch._ II. 166 seqq., 355-356; _D'Ohsson_, III.
412-413; _Q. R._ 177-180; _Ham. Wassaf_, 154, 176; _Makrizi_, IV. 158;
_St. Martin_, _Mem. sur l'Armenie_, II. 137, 169; _M. Mas Latrie_ in
_Bibl. de l'Ec. des Chartes_, IV. 585 seqq.; _J. As._ ser. V. tom. xvii.
536 seqq.; _Schmidt, ueber eine Mongol. Quadratinschrift_, etc., Acad. St.
P., 1847; Russian paper by _Grigorieff_ on same subject, 1846.)

["The History tells us (_Liao Shih_, Bk. LVII. f. 2) that the official
silver tablets _p'ai tzu_ of the period were 600 in number, about a foot
in length, and that they were engraved with an inscription like the above
['Our imperial order for post horses. Urgent.'] in national characters
(_kuo tzu_), and that when there was important state business the Emperor
personally handed the tablet to the envoy, which entitled him to demand
horses at the post stations, and to be treated as if he were the Emperor
himself travelling. When the tablet was marked 'Urgent,' he had the right
to take private horses, and was required to ride, night and day, 700 _li_
in twenty-four hours. On his return he had to give back the tablet to the
Emperor, who handed it to the prince who had the custody of the state
tablets and seals." (_Dr. S. W. Bushell, Actes XI. Cong. Int. Orient._,
Paris, p. 17.)

"The Kin, in the thirteenth century, used badges of office made of silver.
They were rectangular, bore the imperial seal, and an inscription
indicative of the duty of the bearer. (_Chavannes, Voyageurs chez les
Khitans_, 102.) The Nue-chen at an earlier date used wooden _pai-tzu_ tied
to each horseman and horse, to distinguish them by. (_Ma Tuan-lin_, Bk.
327, 11.)" (_Rockhill, Rubruck_, p. 181, note.)

"Tiger's tablets--_Sinice Hu fu_, and _p'ai tsze_ in the common language.
The Mongols had them of several kinds, which differed by the metal, of
which they were made, as well as by the number of pearls (one, two, or
three in number), which were incrusted in the upper part of the tablet.
Falcon's tablets with the figure of a falcon were round, and used to be
given only to special couriers and envoys of the Khan. [_Yuen shi lui
pien_ and _Yuen ch'ao tien chang_.] The use of the _Hu-fu_ was adopted by
the Mongols probably from the Kin." (_Palladius_, l.c. p. 39.)

Rubruquis (Rockhill's ed. pp. 153-154) says:--"And whenever the principal
envoy [of Longa] came to court he carried a highly-polished tablet of
ivory about a cubit long and half a palm wide. Every time he spoke to the
chan or some great personage, he always looked at that tablet as if he
found there what he had to say, nor did he look to the right or the left,
nor in the face of him with whom he was talking. Likewise, when coming
into the presence of the Lord, and when leaving it, he never looked at
anything but his tablet." Mr. Rockhill observes: "These tablets are called
_hu_ in Chinese, and were used in China and Korea; in the latter country
down to quite recent times. They were made of jade, ivory, bamboo, etc.,
according to the rank of the owner, and were about three feet long. The
_hu_ was originally used to make memoranda on of the business to be
submitted by the bearer to the Emperor or to write the answers to
questions he had had submitted to them. Odoric also refers to 'the tablets
of white ivory which the Emperor's barons held in their hands as they
stood silent before him.'"

(Cf. the golden tablets which were of various classes with a tiger for
image and pearls for ornaments, _Deveria, Epigraphie_, p. 15 et seq.) --H.
C.]

NOTE 3.--_Umbrella_. The phrase in Pauthier's text is "_Palieque que on
dit_ ombrel." The Latin text of the Soc. de Geographie has "_unum pallium_
de auro," which I have adopted as probably correct, looking to Burma,
where the old etiquettes as to umbrellas are in full force. These
etiquettes were probably in both countries of old Hindu origin. _Pallium_,
according to Muratori, was applied in the Middle Ages to a kind of square
umbrella, by which is probably meant rather a canopy on four staves, which
was sometimes assigned by authority as an honourable privilege.

But the genuine umbrella would seem to have been used also, for Polo's
contemporary, Martino da Canale, says that, when the Doge goes forth of
his palace, "_si vait apres lui un damoiseau qui porte une umbrele de dras
a or sur son chief_," which umbrella had been given by "_Monseigneur
l'Apostoille_." There is a picture by Girolamo Gambarota, in the Sala del
Gran Consiglio, at Venice, which represents the investiture of the Doge
with the umbrella by Pope Alexander III., and Frederick Barbarossa
(concerning which see _Sanuto_ Junior, in _Muratori_, XXII. 512).

The word _Parasol_ also occurs in the Petrarchian vocabulary, (14th
century) as the equivalent of _saioual_ (Pers. _sayaban_ or _saiwan_, an
umbrella). Carpini notices that umbrellas (_solinum vel tentoriolum in
hasta_) were carried over the Tartar nobles and their wives, even on
horseback; and a splendid one, covered with jewels, was one of the
presents made to Kuyuk Kaan on his enthronement.

With respect to the honorary character attaching to umbrellas in China, I
may notice that recently an English resident of Ningpo, on his departure
for Europe, was presented by the Chinese citizens, as a token of honour,
with a pair of _Wan min san_, umbrellas of enormous size.

The umbrella must have gone through some curious vicissitudes; for at one
time we find it familiar, at a later date apparently unknown, and then
reintroduced as some strange novelty. Arrian speaks of the [Greek:
skiadia], or umbrellas, as used by all Indians of any consideration; but
the thing of which he spoke was familiar to the use of Greek and Roman
ladies, and many examples of it, borne by slaves behind their mistresses,
are found on ancient vase-paintings. Athenaeus quotes from Anacreon the
description of a "beggar on horseback" who

"like a woman bears
An ivory parasol over his delicate head."

An Indian prince, in a Sanskrit inscription of the 9th century, boasts of
having wrested from the King of Marwar the two umbrellas pleasing to
Parvati, and white as the summer moonbeams. Prithi Raj, the last Hindu
king of Delhi, is depicted by the poet Chand as shaded by a white umbrella
on a golden staff. An unmistakable umbrella, copied from a Saxon MS. in
the Harleian collection, is engraved in _Wright's History of Domestic
Manners_, p. 75. The fact that the gold umbrella is one of the
paraphernalia of high church dignitaries in Italy seems to presume
acquaintance with the thing from a remote period. A decorated umbrella
also accompanies the host when sent out to the sick, at least where I
write, in Palermo. Ibn Batuta says that in his time all the people of
Constantinople, civil and military, great and small, carried great
umbrellas over their heads, summer and winter. Ducange quotes, from a MS.
of the Paris Library, the Byzantine court regulations about umbrellas,
which are of the genuine Pan-Asiatic spirit;--[Greek: skiadia
chrysokokkina] extend from the Hypersebastus to the grand Stratopedarchus,
and so on; exactly as used to be the case, with different titles, in Java.
And yet it is curious that John Marignolli, Ibn Batuta's contemporary in
the middle of the 14th century, and Barbosa in the 16th century, are alike
at pains to describe the umbrella as some strange object. And in our own
country it is commonly stated that the umbrella was first used in the last
century, and that Jonas Hanway (died 1786) was one of the first persons
who made a practice of carrying one. The word _umbrello_ is, however, in
Minsheu's dictionary. [See _Hobson-Jobson_, s.v. _Umbrella_.--H. C.]

(_Murat. Dissert._ II. 229; _Archiv. Storic. Ital._ VIII. 274, 560;
_Klapr. Mem._ III.; _Carp._ 759; _N. and Q., C. and J._ II. 180; _Arrian,
Indica_, XVI.; _Smith's Dict., G. and R. Ant._, s. v. _umbraculum_; _J. R.
A. S._ v. 351; _Ras Mala_, I. 221; _I. B._ II. 440; _Cathay_, 381;
_Ramus._ I. f. 301.)

Alexander, according to Athenaeus, feasted his captains to the number of
6000, and made them all sit upon silver chairs. The same author relates
that the King of Persia, among other rich presents, bestowed upon Entimus
the Gortynian, who went up to the king in imitation of Themistocles,
_a silver chair and a gilt umbrella_. (Bk. I. Epit. ch. 31, and II. 31.)

The silver chair has come down to our own day in India, and is much
affected by native princes.

NOTE 4.--I have not been able to find any allusion, except in our author,
to tablets, with gerfalcons (_shonkar_). The _shonkar_ appears, however,
according to Erdmann, on certain coins of the Golden Horde, struck at
Sarai.

There is a passage from Wassaf used by Hammer, in whose words it runs that
the Sayad Imamuddin, appointed (A.D. 683) governor of Shiraz by Arghun
Khan, "was invested with _both_ the Mongol symbols of delegated
sovereignty, the Golden Lion's Head, and the golden _Cat's Head_." It
would certainly have been more satisfactory to find "Gerfalcon's Head" in
lieu of the latter; but it is probable that the same object is meant. The
cut below exhibits the conventional effigy of a gerfalcon as sculptured
over one of the gates of Iconium, Polo's Conia. The head might easily pass
for a conventional representation of a cat's head, and is indeed
strikingly like the grotesque representation that bears that name in
mediaeval architecture. (_Erdmann, Numi Asiatici_, I. 339; _Ilch._ I.
370.)

[Illustration: Sculptured Gerfalcon. (From the Gate of Iconium.)]


[1] "In anno Simiae, octava luna, die quarto exeunte, juxta fluvium Cobam
(_the Kuban_), apud Ripam Rubeam existentes scripsimus." The original
was in _lingua Persayca_.

[2] See _Golden Horde_, p. 218.




CHAPTER VIII.

CONCERNING THE PERSON OF THE GREAT KAAN.


The personal appearance of the Great Kaan, Lord of Lords, whose name is
Cublay, is such as I shall now tell you. He is of a good stature, neither
tall nor short, but of a middle height. He has a becoming amount of flesh,
and is very shapely in all his limbs. His complexion is white and red, the
eyes black and fine,[NOTE 1] the nose well formed and well set on. He has
four wives, whom he retains permanently as his legitimate consorts; and
the eldest of his sons by those four wives ought by rights to be
emperor;--I mean when his father dies. Those four ladies are called
empresses, but each is distinguished also by her proper name. And each of
them has a special court of her own, very grand and ample; no one of them
having fewer than 300 fair and charming damsels. They have also many pages
and eunuchs, and a number of other attendants of both sexes; so that each
of these ladies has not less than 10,000 persons attached to her
court.[NOTE 2]

When the Emperor desires the society of one of these four consorts, he
will sometimes send for the lady to his apartment and sometimes visit her
at her own. He has also a great number of concubines, and I will tell you
how he obtains them.

You must know that there is a tribe of Tartars called UNGRAT, who are
noted for their beauty. Now every year an hundred of the most beautiful
maidens of this tribe are sent to the Great Kaan, who commits them to the
charge of certain elderly ladies dwelling in his palace. And these old
ladies make the girls sleep with them, in order to ascertain if they have
sweet breath [and do not snore], and are sound in all their limbs. Then
such of them as are of approved beauty, and are good and sound in all
respects, are appointed to attend on the Emperor by turns. Thus six of
these damsels take their turn for three days and nights, and wait on him
when he is in his chamber and when he is in his bed, to serve him in any
way, and to be entirely at his orders. At the end of the three days and
nights they are relieved by other six. And so throughout the year, there
are reliefs of maidens by six and six, changing every three days and
nights.[NOTE 3]


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