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APPENDIX.
matic functions at an end, and also that they were absolved from their promise to return to his dominions. Ramusio, in his preface to the narrative of Marco Polo, gives a variety of particulars concerning their arrival, which he compares to that of Ulysses.
W h e n they arrived at Venice, they were known by nobody.
S o many years had elapsed since their departure without any tidings of them, that they were either forgotten or considered dead.
Besides, their
foreign garb, the influence of southern suns, and the similitude which men acquire to those among whom they reside for any length of time, had given them the look of Tartars rather than Italians. T h e y repaired to their own house, which was a noble palace, situated in the street of St. Giovanne Chrisostomo, and was afterwards known by the name of la Corte de la Milione.
T h e y found several of their relatives
still inhabiting it ; but they were slow in recollecting the travelers, not knowing of their wealth, and probably considering them, from their coarse and foreign attire, poor adventurers returned to be a charge upon their families.
T h e Polos, however, took an effectal mode of quickening
the memories of their friends, and insuring themselves a loving reception. T h e y invited them all to a grand banquet.
W h e n their guests arrived,
they received them richly dressed in garments of crimson satin of oriental fashion.
W h e n water had been served for the washing of hands, and
the company were summoned to table, the travelers, who had retired, appeared again in still richer robes of crimson damask.
T h e first dresses
were cut up and distributed among the servants, being of such length that they swept the ground, which, says Ramusio, was the mode in those days with dresses worn within doors.
After the first course, they again
retired and came in dressed in crimson velvet ; the damask dresses being likewise given to the domestics, and the same was done at the end of the feast with their velvet robes, when they appeared in the Venetian dress of the day.
T h e guests were lost in astonishment, and could not compre足
hend the meaning of
this
masquerade.
Having
dismissed
all
the
attendants, Marco Polo brought forth the coarse Tartar dresses in which they had arrived.
Slashing them in several places with a knife, and
ripping open the seams and lining, there tumbled forth rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds, and other precious
stones, until the whole table
glittered with inestimable wealth, acquired from the munificence of the Grand Khan, and conveyed in this portable form through the perils of their long journey. T h e company, observes Ramusio, were out of their wits with amaze-