NOTE 3

NOTE 3.–The number of these festivals and distributions of dresses is
_thirteen_ in all the old texts, except the Latin of the Geog. Soc., which
has _twelve_. Thirteen would seem therefore to have been in the original
copy. And the Ramusian version expands this by saying, ‘Thirteen great
feasts that the Tartars keep with much solemnity to each of the thirteen
moons of the year.’[1] It is possible, however, that this latter sentence
is an interpolated gloss; for, besides the improbability of munificence so
frequent, Pauthier has shown some good reasons why _thirteen_ should be
regarded as an error for _three_. The official History of the Mongol
Dynasty, which he quotes, gives a detail of raiment distributed in
presents on great state occasions _three_ times a year. Such a mistake
might easily have originated in the first dictation, _treize_ substituted
for _trois_, or rather for the old form _tres_; but we must note that the
number 13 is repeated and corroborated in ch. xvi. Odoric speaks of _four_
great yearly festivals, but there are obvious errors in what he says on
this subject. Hammer says the great Mongol Feasts were three, viz. New
Year”s Day, the Kaan”s Birthday, and the Feast of the Herds.