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CHINGHIZ KHAN AND HIS ANCESTORS.
NOVEMBER, 1880.]
like a sparrow, who either keeps hopping round a snare until he falls into it, or flies suddenly to the crest of a tree to escape falling into the trap. I as a Karaju know the limits of my words, but I have not at command words befitting a king. The Karajus are like stallions who have been brought up on the milk of two mares, and have become satiated and stout. If you will assemble a council, and will agree together, then I will surrender my wishes to all, (i. e. accept the chieftainship.) If, however, you disagree, and feud and dissension arises in your ulusses I shall still be satisfied." In this wise he said many things, and began to weep and left the meeting. "Eventually," Rashid says, "according to the annals they apparently elected Terkutai Khiriltuk."
Let us now return again to Yessugei Khakhan, who as Chinghiz Khân's father and the first ancestor was styled Echigué. Yessugei is derived from the Mongol word yissun or yessu, meaning 'nine,' a number deemed fortunate and almost sacred among the Asiatic nomades. Baatur or Baghatur is a well known soubriquet in Mongol, meaning 'brave' or 'heroic. It is the original of the title of Behadur. The Yuan-ch'ao-pi-shi reports that once when Yessugei was hawking on the river Onon,-(the Altan Topchi and Ssanang Setzen say he was following the tracks of a hare in the snow,)-he saw a man of the race Merki named Yeke Jiladu, who was carrying off a maiden whom he had captured from the tribe Olkhon.' Having noticed that she was a beauty, he immediately gallopped home, and soon returned with his brothers Nikun Taishi and Daritai Uchugen. Yeke Jiladu seeing them thus return, sped quickly over a ridge and defile, and joined his wife. She bade him haste away, as it was clear they would do him harm. "If you preserve your life," she said naively, "you will get another wife like me, and if you think of me, call your other wife by my name." She thereupon removed her nether garment, and gave it to him as a memorial of herself. Her husband spurred his horse accordingly, and fled along the Onon. Yessugei and his brothers pursued him hotly over seven ridges, but could not over
a i. e. subject.
3 Erdmann, op. cit. p. 561.
Abu'lghazi, p. 73.
D'Ohsson, op. cit. vol. I, p. 85 note.
• Vide infra.
take him. They thereupon returned again, and escorted the wife of the fugitive, Yessugei acting as postilion, Nikun Taishi riding in front, and Daritai near the traces. The woman wept and cried ont "Oh my husband, the wind never scattered the hairs on your head, nor has your stomach been pinched with hunger. Now you have fled, what troubles will you not have to bear?" Her cries disturbed the waters of the Onon and the woods in the valley. Daritai rebuked her, saying" Your husband has fled over many a hill and many a river, he will not turn his head backwards. Seek his tracks, you will not find them, cease your crying." So they took her home with them, and gave her to Yessugei as his wife. This Saga is also told in the Altan Topchi, which, however, calls the Merki Jiladu, the Taijut Jeled, while Ssanang Setzen calls him a Tartar. The Yuan-ch'ao-pi-shi calls Yessugei's wife Khoilun-the Yulun of the Yuan-shi. Rashida'd-din styles her Ugez Fujin and also Ulun Ergeh, 10 both of which are probably titles rather than names. The Altan Topchi and Ssanang Setzen call her Ogelen Eke, which according to Schmidt means 'the mother of clouds' or the cloud mother." Yessugei continued the struggle which his uncle had with the Tartars, and in one fight took prisoners Temujin Uge and Khoribukhoa, the Temujin Ergeh and Kur Buka of Rashida'd-din. About this time Yessugei's wife Khuilun, gave birth to a son on the banks of the Onon, at Deligun Buldak, to which we have already referred, and where the chief camp of the Mongols was situated, and as a memento of the capture of the Tartar chief, they called the child Temujin. He is better known as the famous Chinghiz Khân. The Yuan-ch'ao-pi-shi tells us that in his closed fist when born there was found a hard clot of blood-no bad presage of his future career. I have already mentioned that the ruling race among the Tartars was most probably of Turkish descent. This is confirmed by the name Te mujin, or Temuchin, which was borrowed from their chieftain, for the great World-conqueror. In the vocabulary attached to the Yuan-shi we read that the name means the best iron, whence we judge that it is a derivative of timur, which
11. e. the section of the Kongurut, Olkhon.
Meaning she had taken good care of him.
275
Douglas, p. 9.
10 Erdmann, p. 253.
11 Saanang Setzen, p. 375, note 11.
