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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1881.
went within a bowshot, whereupon the eagle dictated to him the divine laws, which are called yasa and gave him the title of Chanc Ghaian."
A similar story again is told by Ssanang Setzen, who says the proclamation was made by the Aralad on the banks of the Kerulon. Before it took place, a five-coloured bird in the shape of a lark went for three mornings, and sat on a squared stone in front of the Royal yart, and screamed out Chinggis Chinggis ! which Temujin accordingly adopted as his middle name, his full title being Sutu Bogda Chinggis Khaghan, by which he was everywhere known. The stone upon which the bird had alighted thereupon suddenly flew asunder, and disclosed in its midst the famous seal Khas Boo, which was a span in length and breadth, and bore a tortoise on one side and on the other two interlaced dragons, the whole being beautifully wronght."
In regard to the etymology of the name Chinghiz there have been mang theories. It has been connected with tenghia, a sea or great lake, and with ghakhai a pig." Rashidu'd-din gives several explanations of it. In his account of the Urnaut he says the word ching is equivalent to the Arabic muste hekem, and that chinggis is the superlative or plural of ching. Again, in his account of the Kuriltai of the year 599 Hej. he says ching" means strong, powerful, and chinghiz is the superlative of the same word. Lastly, in his account of the Kuriltai of 602 he says the title Chinghiz was equivalent to that of Shahin Shah among the Persians. He also says "it was equivalent to Gurkhan,' i.e. strong and mighty Padishah." Khuandemir uses a couplet in these words :"Notice that in the Mongol tongue the name of Chinghiz Khân means king of kings."$8 Schmidt in discussing the name says that ching does not in Mongol mean strong, but is an
50 Brosset, Hist. de la Georgie, add. etc. pp. 440 and 441.
33 Op. cit. p. 71. The Persian writers who date the adoption of the name in 1201-2, tell a different story. Javeni, the author of the Jihan Kushui, tells us that at the kuriltai held in that year a Shaman called Gugju, also named But Tengri or the Image of God, who for several days in the severe winter had been running over the mountains and steppes naked, said that God bad spoken to him and declared he had given the whole earth to Temujin, and had also given him the name of Chinghiz Khan. Juveni reports this on the testimony of a Mongol amir who had told the story to himself (Erdmin, p. 600). Rashid-u'd-din tells us Gagsu or Kuksu was the son of Menglik, to whom Chinghiz gave his own mother in marriage after his father's death. He tells us that Kuksu communicated to Chinghiz himself the message he professed to have received from heaven
adverb, meaning 'fast, immovable,' and he ex. plains it by the phrase ching bishirel, 1. e. the immovable faith.50 Erdmann adopts this etymology, and styles his work "The history of Temajin, the immovable or firm," and compares this title with that borne by O no-wei, a chief of the Yea-Yen, whom I have elsewhere identified with the Kalmuks, who was styled SÔ-liu-teu-ping-ta-fa-khân, i.e. the Khân who has conquered and holds fast." I cannot adopt this etymology. Schmidt, who was a profound Mongol scholar, says distinctly that Chinghiz has no meaning at all in Mongol.** This agrees with the statement of Gaubil, who says "Tchingkisse n'est pas un mot Mongon, ce n'est qu'an son qui exprime le cri dont j'ai parlé,"48 and of Visdelou, the profoundest Chinese sobolar among the French Jesuits, who, after mentioning the etymology for the name Chinghiz saggested by his Mongol friend as above mentioned, goes on to say: "Cela me fait croire que ce titre fat emprunté d'une langue etrangère et inconna aux Mongols, dans laquelle il avait le sens que les Chinois lui donnaient." He previously says that the Chinese explained the name as meaning Tien-si, i.e. given by heaven.** These facts make one the more readily accept the suggestion of the late Dorji Bansarof, who was a Mongol by birth and a scholar, and who urges that when Temujin proclaimed himself Emperor he adopted the title used by the former sovereigns of the Hiung Nu, namely Chenyu or Shan-ya, of which Chinghiz was a corruption, in confirmation of which he adds that the Hiung Na also styled their chief Tengri-kubu, 1.e. son of heaven. Erdmann argues against this conclusion of Bansarof, but it is accepted by Palladius, who says that any one who knows how incorrectly the Chinese transcribe foreign names into their own tongue will not be surprised that Shan-yu should become Chinghiz. The as above. It was reported of him that he used to sit naked on the ice in the winter in a place called Uden Keruen or Uhan Garwan, the coldest in those parts. The Mongols believed that he could fly to heaven on & white horse. (Berezine, vol. I, pp. 158-9; Erdmann, p. 204.)
3- Erdmann, op. cit. note 179. 25 i. e. one firmly fixed in his authority. 36 Erdmann, p. 601. 37 Jing, as Erdmann writes it. 3 Id. pp. 602-603.
39 Quatremère Hist. des Mongols de la 'erse, p. 247, note 76.
40 Op. cit. p. 379. +1 Erdmann, Temudschin, etc., p. 606.
Seanang Setzen, p. 379. 43 Op. cit. p. 12, note 1. ** D'Herbelot, Suppl. p. 334. 45 Op. cit. pp. 599-609.
