ld not give you any, lest it should be taken from you, as was done from
Ardeshir, a former ambassador from your, master." To this Arjak made
answer: "If your majesty will do me that honour, I will engage my word that
no person shall take it from me." To this the emperor replied: "On that
condition I will give you two, which I have ordered to be brought for that
purpose." On the eighth day of the month, the ambassadors of Soltan Shah,
and Bakshi Malek were sent for, to receive the Shankish, or imperial
present. The first received eight _balish_ of silver[2], thirty furred
imperial vestments, twenty-four under petticoats[3], two horses, one of
which was provided with furniture, 100 bundles of cane arrows, twenty-five
great porcelain vases, and 5000 ***[4]. Bakshi Malek had as much, bating
one balish of silver; the women belonging to the ambassadors had no silver
given them, but they each received half the quantity of stufis that had
been given to their lords. On the thirteenth of the same month, the
ambassadors were sent for to court, when the emperor said to them: "I am
going to hunt; take your shankars, therefore, which fly well, and divert
yourselves; but the horses you brought me are good for nothing." About this
time, the emperors son returned from the country of _Nemray_, and the
ambassadors went to pay their compliments to him in his particular court,
to the east of the imperial palace, where they found him seated in state,
amid his attendants, and having his table served in the same manner with
that of the emperor.

On the first of the month Rabiya-al-akher, the ambassadors received notice
to go to meet the emperor, who was then on his return from hunting; and, on
getting on horseback before day for that purpose, they found Mulana Kazi
Yusof waiting for them at the door of their hotel, in great dejection.
Inquiring the cause, he told them privately that the emperor had been
thrown in hunting from the horse they had presented him from Shah Rokh, and
had given orders that they should be carried in chains to certain cities in
the east of Kathay. The ambassadors were much afflicted at this news, and
continued their journey for about twenty miles to the emperors camp. At
this place, the Kathayans had in one night inclosed a plot of ground 500
paces square, with walls ten feet high. This wall was composed of earth,
hard pressed down between two planks, as in a mould, leaving two gates; and
the place whence the earth was d