[7] Continuatio Ann. Admutensium, in Pertz, Scriptores, IX. 580.
[8] E.g. ii. 42.
[9] St. Martin, Mém. sur l’Arménie, II. 77.
[10] [“The Keraits,” says Mr. Rockhill (Rubruck, 111, note), “lived on the Orkhon and the Tula, south-east of Lake Baikal; Abulfaraj relates their conversion to Christianity in 1007 by the Nestorian Bishop of Merv. Rashid-eddin, however, says their conversion took place in the time of Chingis Khan. (D’Ohsson, I. 48; Chabot, Mar Jabalaha, III. 14.) D’Avezac (536) identifies, with some plausibility, I think, the Keraits with the Kí-lê (or T’íeh-lê) of the early Chinese annals. The name K’í-lê was applied in the 3rd century A.D. to all the Turkish tribes, such as the Hui-hu (Uigúrs), Kieh-Ku (Kirghiz) Alans, etc., and they are said to be the same as the Kao-ch’ê, from whom descended the Cangle of Rubruck. (T’ang shu, Bk. 217, i.; Ma Tuan-lin, Bk. 344, 9, Bk. 347, 4.) As to the Merkits, or Merkites, they were a nomadic people of Turkish stock, with a possible infusion of Mongol blood. They are called by Mohammedan writers Uduyut, and were divided into four tribes. They lived on the Lower Selinga and its feeders. (D’Ohsson, i. 54; Howorth, History, I., pt. i. 22, 698.)”—H. C.]
[11] [Onan Kerule is “the country watered by the Orkhon and Kerulun Rivers, i.e. the country to the south and south-east of Lake Baikal. The headquarters (ya-chang) of the principal chief of the Uigurs in the eighth century was 500 li (about 165 miles) south-west of the confluence of the Wen-Kun ho (Orkhon) and the Tu-lo ho (Tura). Its ruins, sometimes, but wrongly, confounded with those of the Mongol city of Karakorum, some 20 miles from it, built in 1235 by Ogodai, are now known by the name of Kara Balgasun, ‘Black City.’” [See [p. 228].] The name Onankerule seems to be taken from the form Onan-ou-Keloran, which occurs in Mohammedan writers. (Quatremère, 115 et seq.; see also T’ang shu, Bk. 43b; Rockhill, Rubruck, 116, note.)—H. C.]
[12] Vámbéry makes Ong an Uighúr word, signifying “right.” [Palladius (l.c. 23) says: “The consonance of the names of Wang-Khan and Wang-Ku (Ung-Khan and Ongu—Ongot of Rashiduddin, a Turkish Tribe) led to the confusion regarding the tribes and persons, which at M. Polo’s time seems to have been general among the Europeans in China; M. Polo and Johannes de Monte Corvino transfer the title of Prester John from Wang-Khan, already perished at that time, to the distinguished family of Wang-Ku.”—H. C.]
CHAPTER XLVII.
Of Chinghis, and how he became the First Kaan of the Tartars.
Now it came to pass in the year of Christ’s Incarnation 1187 that the Tartars made them a King whose name was Chinghis Kaan.[{1}] He was a man of great worth, and of great ability (eloquence), and valour. And as soon as the news that he had been chosen King was spread abroad through those countries, all the Tartars in the world came to him and owned him for their Lord. And right well did he maintain the Sovereignty they had given him. What shall I say? The Tartars gathered to him in astonishing multitude, and when he saw such numbers he made a great furniture of spears and arrows and such other arms as they used, and set about the conquest of all those regions till he had conquered eight provinces. When he conquered a province he did no harm to the people or their property, but merely established some of his own men in the country along with a proportion of theirs, whilst he led the remainder to the conquest of other provinces. And when those whom he had conquered became aware how well and safely he protected them against all others, and how they suffered no ill at his hands, and saw what a noble prince he was, then they joined him heart and soul and became his devoted followers. And when he had thus gathered such a multitude that they seemed to cover the earth, he began to think of conquering a great part of the world. Now in the year of Christ 1200 he sent an embassy to Prester John, and desired to have his daughter to wife. But when Prester John heard that Chinghis Kaan demanded his daughter in marriage he waxed very wroth, and said to the Envoys, “What impudence is this, to ask my daughter to wife! Wist he not well that he was my liegeman and serf? Get ye back to him and tell him that I had liever set my daughter in the fire than give her in marriage to him, and that he deserves death at my hand, rebel and traitor that he is!” So he bade the Envoys begone at once, and never come into his presence again. The Envoys, on receiving this reply, departed straightway, and made haste to their master, and related all that Prester John had ordered them to say, keeping nothing back.[{2}]