about noon
Fifteen hundred of the emperor 's largest horses , each about four inches and a half high , were employed to draw me towards the metropolis , which , as I said , was half a mile distant . About four hours after we began our journey , I awaked by a very ridiculous accident ; for the carriage being stopped a while , to adjust something that was out of order , two or three of the young natives had the curiosity to see how I looked when I was asleep ; they climbed up into the engine , and advancing very softly to my face , one of them , an officer in the guards , put the sharp end of his half-pike a good way up into my left nostril , which tickled my nose like a straw , and made me sneeze violently ; whereupon they stole off unperceived , and it was three weeks before I knew the cause of my waking so suddenly . We made a long march the remaining part of the day , and , rested at night with five hundred guards on each side of me , half with torches , and half with bows and arrows , ready to shoot me if I should offer to stir . The next morning at sun-rise we continued our march , and arrived within two hundred yards of the city gates about noon . The emperor , and all his court , came out to meet us ; but his great officers would by no means suffer his majesty to endanger his person by mounting on my body . At the place where the carriage stopped there stood an ancient temple , esteemed to be the largest in the whole kingdom ; which , having been polluted some years before by an unnatural murder , was , according to the zeal of those people , looked upon as profane , and therefore had been applied to common use , and all the ornaments and furniture carried away . In this edifice it was determined I should lodge .