titive examination in beauty; total marks attainable 24; no
candidate to pass who did not get 20 or 21. _Carat_ expresses _n_ / 24,
not any absolute value.

Apart from the mode of valuation, it appears that a like system of
selection was continued by the Ming, and that some such selection from the
daughters of the Manchu nobles has been maintained till recent times.
Herodotus tells that the like custom prevailed among the Adyrmachidae, the
Libyan tribe next Egypt. Old Eden too relates it of the "Princes of
Moscovia." (_Middle Km._ I. 318; _Herod._ IV. 168, Rawl.; _Notes on
Russia_, Hak. Soc. II. 253.)

CHAPTER IX.

CONCERNING THE GREAT KAAN'S SONS.

The Emperor hath, by those four wives of his, twenty-two male children;
the eldest of whom was called CHINKIN for the love of the good Chinghis
Kaan, the first Lord of the Tartars. And this Chinkin, as the Eldest Son
of the Kaan, was to have reigned after his father's death; but, as it came
to pass, he died. He left a son behind him, however, whose name is TEMUR,
and he is to be the Great Kaan and Emperor after the death of his
Grandfather, as is but right; he being the child of the Great Kaan's
eldest son. And this Temur is an able and brave man, as he hath already
proven on many occasions.[NOTE 1]

The Great Kaan hath also twenty-five other sons by his concubines; and
these are good and valiant soldiers, and each of them is a great chief. I
tell you moreover that of his children by his four lawful wives there are
seven who are kings of vast realms or provinces, and govern them well;
being all able and gallant men, as might be expected. For the Great Kaan
their sire is, I tell you, the wisest and most accomplished man, the
greatest Captain, the best to govern men and rule an Empire, as well as
the most valiant, that ever has existed among all the Tribes of
Tartars.[NOTE 2]

NOTE 1.--Kublai had a son older than CHIMKIN or CHINGKIM, to whom Hammer's
Genealogical Table gives the name of _Jurji_, and attributes a son called
Ananda. The Chinese authorities of Gaubil and Pauthier call him _Turchi_
or _Torchi_, i.e. _Dorje_, "Noble Stone," the Tibetan name of a sacred
Buddhist emblem in the form of a dumb-bell, representing the _Vajra_ or
Thunderbolt. Probably Dorje died early, as in the passage we shall quote
from Wassaf also Chingkim is styled the Eldest Son: Marco is probably
wrong in connecting the name of the latter with that of Chinghiz. Schmidt
says that he