ABSTRACT
WE ambassadors were now taken back [after our presentation, as described in the last chapter, to Prince Pír Muhammad] to that awning where at first we had been seated, and here we awaited the hour of noon when Timur leaving his private tent was to appear in the Great Pavilion. And thither he came and there received us, together with a great crowd of his imperial kinsmen, also many other ambassadors from foreign countries who had arrived to present themselves before him. We and they all now took our seats in due order of precedence in the presence of his Highness under the Great Pavilion, being spectators or the various games that were now exhibited before him. Then too they brought out his elephants, their hides painted with green and red and other colours, each with its castle [or howdah] on its back, and these elephants were made to perform many tricks. Some played on timbrels while the elephants went through their performances and the noise they made was amazing, while also within the pavilion where Timur was seated there were gathered the minstrels who loudly sounded their various musical instruments. Round and about and notably in the presence of his Highness they had stood on the ground as many as three hundred wine jars. Further there were two tripods made of wooden staves painted red, and hung on each was a great leathern sack that was filled with cream and mare’s milk. This the attendants having wands in their hands kept on stirring, rocking the milk backwards and forwards, while time and again they threw in many loaves of sugar. This was done in the service of providing drink for the guests that day, both as to the wine and the milk.
