and fellow-Venetians that they were indeed those Polos who had been
believed dead for so many years. The story goes that they satisfactorily
established their identity by inviting all their kinsmen to a great
banquet, for each course of which they put on a garment more magnificent
than the last, and finally, bringing in their coarse Tartar coats, they
ripped open the seams and the lining thereof, 'upon which there poured
forth a great quantity of precious stones, rubies, sapphires,
carbuncles, diamonds, and emeralds, which had been sewn into each coat
with great care, so that nobody could have suspected that anything was
there.... The exhibition of such an extraordinary and infinite treasure
of jewels and precious stones, which covered the table, once more filled
all present with such astonishment that they were dumb and almost beside
themselves with surprise: and they at once recognized these honoured and
venerated gentlemen in the Ca' Polo, whom at first they had doubted and
received them with the greatest honour and reverence.[29] Human nature
has changed little since the thirteenth century. The precious stones are
a legend, but no doubt the Polos brought many with them, for they were
jewel merchants by trade; they had had ample opportunities for business
in China, and the Great Khan had loaded them with 'rubies and other
handsome jewels of great value' to boot. Jewels were the most
convenient form in which they could have brought home their wealth. But
the inquiring Marco brought other things also to tickle the curiosity of
the Venetians, as he lets fall from time to time in his book. He
brought, for example, specimens of the silky hair of the Tangut yak,
which his countrymen much admired, the dried head and feet of a musk
deer, and the seeds of a dye plant (probably indigo) from Sumatra, which
he sowed in Venice, but which never came up, because the climate was not
sufficiently warm.[30] He brought presents also for the Doge; for an
inventory made in 1351 of things found in the palace of Marino Faliero
includes among others a ring given by Kublai Khan, a Tartar collar, a