had to put up with his nephew,
and she was much distressed when the Polos took leave of her to return
home to Venice by way of Tabriz, Trebizond, the Bosporus, and
Constantinople. There they arrived in the year 1295, having been absent
for twenty-four years.

Their relatives and friends had supposed them to be dead long before.
They had almost forgotten their mother tongue, and appeared in their
native city in shabby Asiatic clothes. The first thing they did was to
go to the old house of their fathers and knock at the door; but their
relations did not recognize them, would not believe their romantic
story, and sent them about their business.

The three Polos accordingly took another house and here made a great
feast for all their family. When the guests were all seated round the
table and the banquet was about to commence, the three hosts entered,
dressed down to the feet in garments of costly crimson silk. And as
water was taken round for the guests to wash their hands, they exchanged
their dresses for Asiatic mantles of the finest texture, the silken
dresses being cut into pieces and distributed among their retainers.
Then they appeared in robes of the most valuable velvet, while the
mantles were divided among the servants, and lastly the velvet went the
same way.

All the guests were astonished at what they saw. When the board was
cleared and the servants were gone, Marco Polo brought in the shabby,
tattered clothes the three travellers had worn when their relatives
would not acknowledge them. The seams of these garments were ripped up
with sharp knives, and out poured heaps of jewels on to the
table--rubies, sapphires, carbuncles, diamonds, and emeralds. When
Kublai Khan gave them leave to depart they exchanged all their wealth
for precious stones, because they knew that they could not carry a heavy
weight of gold such a long way. They had sewed the stones in their
clothes that no one might suspect that they had them.

When the guests saw these treasures scattered over the table their
astonishment knew no bounds. And now all had to acknowledge that these
three gentlemen were really the missing members of the Polo house. So
they became the object of the greatest reverence and respect. When news
about them spread through Venice the good citizens crowded to their
house, all eager to embrace and welcome the far-travelled men and to pay
them homage. "The young men came daily to visit and converse with the
ever poli