“The fields of the Kerulon, where first thou didst sit on thy throne as Jinghis, are awaiting thee off there.
“Bortai Fudjin, the wife of thy youth, Boörchu and Mukuli thy faithful friends, thy fortunate land and thy great golden mansion, that wonderful building, are awaiting thee off there.
“Wilt thou leave us now here in this quagmire, because this land pleases thee? because so many Tanguts are vanquished? because Kurbeljin Goa was beautiful?
“We could not save thy noble life in this kingdom, so let us bear thy remains to their last home and resting place. Let us bear thy remains which are as fair as the jade stone. Let us give consolation to thy people.”
After this chant the car moved from the blue clay, went forward, [[141]]passed over the mountain range easily and across the immense Gobi desert. It moved on amid wailing and chanting, and at last reached the home of the mighty and merciless manslayer.
The body was buried in a Kentei Khan forest near a majestic tree which had pleased Jinghis Khan very greatly in his lifetime. There were many smaller trees near this single large one, but soon after the burial all trees in the forest had grown equal in size and appearance, so that no man knew or could learn where the body of the conqueror was hidden.
Jinghis Khan is one of the great characters of history, perhaps the greatest that has appeared in the world to the present day. A man who, never hampered by conscience, advanced directly toward the one supreme object of his life,—power. His executive ability was wonderful, as was also his utter disregard for human life. Beginning with a few huts on the Kerulon he drew in tribe after tribe, country after country, till at his death he was master of more territory than had ever been ruled by one sovereign. He stands forth also as the greatest manslayer the world has ever known. From 1211 to 1223 in China and Tangut alone Jinghis and his assistants killed more than eighteen million five hundred thousand human beings. He demanded blind obedience from all men, the slightest infringement was punished with death; even his most distinguished generals submitted to the bastinado, or to execution.
In Jinghis Khan’s Code of Laws the homicide, the adulterer, the cattle thief, and the person who for the third time lost a prisoner confided to his care was put to death. Torture was used to force confession. When an animal was to be slaughtered it must be thrown on its back, an incision made in its breast and the heart torn out. This custom prevails among the Mongols of the Baikal (the Buriats) to the present day when killing animals for sacrifice.
Jinghis Khan left great possessions to each of his sons and heirs. To Juchi, the eldest, he left that immense region north of Lake Aral and westward to the uttermost spot on which the hoof of a horse had been planted by Mongols at any time. The dominions of Jagatai extended from Kayalik in the Uigur land to the Syr Daryá, or Yaxartes.
Ogotai received the country watered by the Imil, while Tului, [[142]]the youngest, inherited his father’s home places between Kara Kurum and the Onon River region.