when the Kaan desires to drink, these enchanters by the power of their
enchantments cause the cups to move from their place without being touched by
anybody, and to present themselves to the Emperor! This every one present may
witness, and there are oftentimes more than ten thousand persons thus present.
’Tis a truth and no lie! and so will tell you the sages of our own country who
understand necromancy, for they also can perform it.”
On the occasion of one of these Idol Festivals, the Bacsi would go to the Prince
and say:—“Sire, the feast of such a god is come.” And he would continue:
—“My Lord, you know that this god, when he gets no offering, always sends
bad weather and spoils our seasons. So we pray you to give us such and such a
number of black-faced sheep,” (naming any number they please). “And we beg
also, good my Lord, that we may have such a quantity of incense, and such a
quantity of lign-aloes, and”—so much of this or so much of that, according to
the measure of their cupidity or the probability of their expectations being
gratified—“that we may perform a solemn service and a great sacrifice to our
Idols, and that so they may be induced to protect us and all our property.”
When the Bacsi have obtained from the Kaan the fulfilment of their desires, they
make a great feast in honour of their god, and hold great ceremonies of worship
with grand illuminations and quantities of incense of a variety of odours, which
they make up from different aromatic spices. And when the viands are cooked,
they set them before the idols, and sprinkle the bush about, affirming that in this
way the idols obtain a sufficiency. Thus it is that they keep their festivals. Each
idol, we must add, has a name of his own, and a feast-day, just as the Saints of
the Christian Church have their anniversaries.
Large minsters and abbeys are theirs, some of them of the size of a small town,
with upwards of 2,000 monks in a single abbey. These monks dress more
decorously than the rest of the people, and have the head and the beard shaven.
Among them a limited number are, by their rule, allowed to marry.
Another kind of devotees were called the Seusin, men of extraordinary
abstemiousness, who led a life of extreme endurance. Their sole food was bran
mixed with hot water, so that one might call their lives a prolonged fast. They
had numerous idols, and idols of a monstrous size, but they also worshipped fire.
Idolaters not belonging to this sect naturally called them “heretics,” on the old
principle that “my doxy” is “orthodoxy,” and “your doxy” “heterodoxy.” Their
dresses were made of hempen stuff, black and blue, and they slept upon mats. In
fact, says Marco Polo, “their asceticism is something remarkable.”