________________
JUNE, 1881.)
CHINGHIZ KHAN AND HIS ANCESTORS.
178
separated. The former occupied the steppe country, and the latter the mountains. They had a long strife. Their father described Buruk as “a lion which does not bestir itself until a wolf has torn out half its loins."'26
It was this Buiruk who was now in alliance with Chamukha. With the Naimans are nientioned the Merkis and also the Uirat. The last of these were led by their chief Khutukha or Khotuka Biki, who was a dependent of Buiruk, the Naiman chief. Rashidu'd-din tells us the Uirat formed several tribes, cach with a separate name. Although he says their language was Mongol, it was slightly different from that of the other Mongol peoples. Thus they called a knife, which in standard Mongol was called kutuga, khrudga, etc. etc.
The Uirat still survive as a powerful community. Schmidt says the favourite name the * Kalmuks of the Volga give themselves is Uirat or Mongol-Uirat.” Durban Uirat, or the Four Uirat, is the name by which the Kalmuks were known to Ssanang Setzen, in whose pages they occur very frequently. He also speaks of the Uirat Buriat and the Gol Minggan of the Uirat." The Chinese writers of the Ming period call the Kalmuks, Wala, which is their transcription of Uirat, the Chinese having no letter ". Rashidu'd-din says they lived on the Sekiz Muran. Sekiz, in Turkish, means eight, and muran in Mongol ineans river. The name, therefore, as Abu'lgházi says, means the eight rivers. These eight rivers, he says, fall into the Angara, which is the head stream of the Kom or Yenissei. This is confrmed by the names of the eight rivers as given by Rashidu'd-din and Abu'lghazi." Thus the Ukhut Muran is doubt- less the Irkut, the Uk Muran is no doubt the Oka. The Chaghan Muran, or white river, doubtless survives in the Biela, which is a new name given to one of the tributaries of the Oka by the Russians, and which means white. The Jurja or Khorkha Muran is probably the upper Tunguska, the Mongols call the Tungus of Man churia Jurji. Of the other four rivers the Kara Ussun is still the name of a tributary of the Oka. The On Muran is probably the modern
Unga. The Kok Muran or blue river and the Ibei Usun Sijitun or Sanbikun, I cannot identify, but these will suflice to fix the district called Sekiz Murun by Rashidu'd-din. This author says the Tumat, by whom, as I shall shew further on, he probably meant the Buriats, formerly occupied this area, but had moved further on, and it is not improbable that the Uirat, who were clients of the Naimans, lived at this time about Lake Kosso Gol. Their name is interesting. Pallas and Remusat both say it means allies, Durban Uirat meaning the four allies." Bansarof explains the name as derived from Ouarat, meaning forest people or woodlanders." Vambery would give it a Turkishi etymology, and says oyurat means a grey borse, which has a plausible support from a statement of Marco Polo, who says that the Kaan, i.e. Khu bilai, kept an immense stud of echite horses and mares, more than 10,000 in all, and all pure white and withont a speck. The milk of these mares was drunk by himself and his family, and by none else, except by those of one great tribe that had also the privilege of drinking it. This privilege was granted them by Chinghiz Khan on account of a certain victory that they helped him to win long ago. The name of the tribe was Horial.” Abulfaraj calls them Averathaei, and says they excelled the rest of Chinghiz Khan's subjects in valour. He accordingly honoured them, and made a law that the daughters of their chiefs should marry into his family. and vice versá, which he says was the role when he wrote." This is confirmed when we find that Turalji, the son of Khataka Bigi, their chief, married a daughtor of Chinghiz Klån, while Turalji's sister married Mangu Khákan. The form of the name as given by Abulfaraj reminds us of another etymology, to which I in fact lean. Thau t in Uirat, I believe, is merely the form of the plural. The rest of the word is then similar in form to Avar or Var, as the name occurs in the Byzantine authors. There are many other considerations which favour the identification of the Kalmuks with the Avars, which we cannot enter into here. This will suffice at least
* Erdmann, P. 240. 11 Berezine, vol. I, p. 79 ; Erdmann, p. 188.
» Vorsch. in Geb. der alt. rel. etc., der Volk. Mitt. Asien, p. 48 note.
» Op. cit. pp. 87, 189, 143, 146, 147, 158, 156, 167, 167, 100, eto.
* Berezine, p. 79; Erdmann, p. 187, Abu'lghha, p. 45.
"Pallas, Nam'. Hist. Nach. vol. I, p. 6; Remusat, Lcs Langues Tartares p. 238.
» Berezine, vol. 1, noto 128. 33 Yole's Marco Folo, vol. I, p. 291. " Chron. Syr: p. 148.
!
