________________
302
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1883.
against the Tumats, but we do not know whether it took place before or after Chinghiz Khan's withdrawal from China. Probably it was before. Who these Tumats were is not easy to decide. The Yuan-ch'ao-pi-shi calls them the Kholi or Khori Tumat. Rashidu'ddin speaks of them as living near Burghurjin Tuguna and among the Kirghises, and says they were a powerful tribe.90 One of the five sections of the Kerait or Kirais was called Tumait or Tumat, and if the Kirais of Wang Khân were, as some Russian inquirers believe, the ancestors of the Kirais, who still form an important section of the Kirghises, this world support the view that they were of Kirghiz race. On the other hand, the Kalmuks have a legend that one of the four original sections of their race (the Durben Uirad or four Virads), was called Tammut. They do not know what has become of the Tummut, but believe that they still live somewhere in further or Eastern Asia, and say they were separated from the other Uirada by the spirit"-Shara Shuliua, who frequently leads astray wandering tribes. Pallas, who quotes the tradition, suggests that the wellknown tribe of the Tumeds among the Mongols of the Forty-nine Banners may possibly be the Tummut of the Kalmuk tradition. I am disposed to consider the Tumats as originally & section of the Kalmuks, more especially as Rashidu'd-din in his article on the Hushins calls them the Mongol race of the Tumats." The word truned or tumat is the plural of tuman, meaning 10,000, but, in the cases above named, is clearly a proper name, and not a mere appellative. To revert to our story. According to the Huang Yuan and Rashidu'd-dîn, the Tumats had submitted, but after a while, profiting by Chinghiz Khân's absence, they broke out into revolt under their chief called Dulaskhoi, by the former authority, and Tatulah Sakhar by the latter. The Huang Yuan says Chinghiz sent Bolokhun Nayan and Duluto against them, and the former died there." Rashidu'd-din says that the Baim Buyan was first sent against them, but as he excused himself on the ground of illness, Chinghiz ordered Bugharul to march against them with a division. When he received the order he asked the minister if
90 Erdmann, Temudachin, p. 190. * i. e. the ignis fatuus. Pallas says the Irrgeist. * Saml. Hist. Nach.; etc., vol. I, p. 7. 1 Erdmann, p. 209.
he had suggested his name to Chinghiz, or whether it was the latter's own choice, and on hearing that it was, he said I will obey his command, and spill my blood in the work. Having commended his wife and children to the care of the Khakan, he set out and speedily subdued the Tumat, but he lost his life in the struggle." The Yuan-ch'ao-pi-shi gives us some interesting details of the campaign. When Bugharul, whom it calls Boroul, set out, the Tumat ruler Daidulul was already dead, and his widow Botokhuitarkhun had control of matters. The Mongol general having set ont ahead of his army with only three men, the Tumats surrounded him, cut off his retreat and killed him. Chinghiz, hearing of this, was very angry, and wished to march against them himself, but Boorcha or Bughurjin and Mu-khu-li persuaded him not to do so, and he accordingly sent Dorbodokhshin with an army against them; he made a feint to approach the place where Boroul had been killed, but actually advanced through the district Khulaanbukha along a narrow path which had been trodden by animals, and for fear his soldiers might be afraid to traverse such a road, he distributed 10 rods to each man with orders to beat those who would not advance. The soldiers also provided themselves with axes, saws and chisels with which to hew down the trees obstructing the path. Having at length reached the crest of a ridge, they looked down upon the Tumats "like looking down the smoke-hole of a tent." They fell on them while they were feasting, and conquered them. The victors released two Mongol chiefs, namely Khorchi and Khudukhabeki who had been imprisoned by the Tamate. The former, as we saw in a previous paper, had as a reward for some service requested permission from Chinghiz to select 30 beautiful girls as his wives, and having learnt that the maidens among the Tumats were beautiful, he determined to secure thirty of them. The Tumats objected and seized him. When Chinghiz heard of this, he sent Khudukhabeki, who was well acquainted with the forest peoples, to secure his release, but he also was seized. When the Tumats were subdued, Chinghiz gave Boroul" a hundred Tumat families; to Khorchi
* Op. cit. * Erdmann, op. cit., p. 353.
» 1. mave to the family of Boronl, whom Rashid say he took under his special protection.
