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CHINGHIZ KHAN AND HIS ANCESTORS.
MARCH, 1887.]
thick forest which prevented the particular tree, near which the remains had been buried, from being recognised. Several of his descendants were buried in the same forest, which for a long time, was guarded by a thousand men of the tribe Uriangkut, who were exempted from military service.
Perfumes were burnt without ceasing before images of the princes placed in this spot. It was only accessible to the four great ordus of Chinghiz Khân: a privilege they still preserved a century after his death. In regard to these images of the princes it would seem that a figure of Chinghiz Khân, perhaps made of felt, was placed in a cart in front of the royal tent of Batu Khân, to which were offered gifts, and inter alia horses, which no one afterwards mounted. They also offered other animals to it which were killed and their flesh eaten. Their bones were not broken but burnt. Carpini tells us he saw this figure and that the Russian prince Michael was killed because he refused to make obeisance to it, saying he did not mind bowing to Batu and his people, but that it was not permitted to a Christian to bow to the image of a dead man."
Rashidu'd-din tells us in his account of Ogotai, Chinghiz Khan's successor, that after his inauguration he caused funeral meals to be offered for three days to his father's manes. He then selected from the families of the Noyans and generals forty of the most beautiful girls, who were splendidly decked out in rich garments and jewels, and then, to use Rashidu'd-din's own words, were sent to serve Chinghiz Khân in the other world. Some splendid horses were similarly sacrificed.*
To return to the funeral of the great chief. Marco Polo says, "You should be told also that all the Grand Khâns and all the descendants of Chinghiz, their first Lord, are carried to a mountain that is called Altay to be interred. Wheresoever the sovereign may die, he is carried to his burial in that mountain with his predecessors, no matter if the place of his death were 100 days' journey distant. Let me tell you a strange thing too. When they are carrying the body of any Emperor to be buried with the others, the convoy
1 D'Ohnson, Vol. I. pp. 381-383. Carpini and D'Avesac, pp. 620-621. D'Ohsson, Vol. II. p. 18.
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that goes with the body doth put to the sword all whom they fall in with on the road, saying, Go and wait upon your lord in the other world.' For they do in sooth believe that all such as they slay in this manner do go to serve their lord in the other world. They do the same also, too, with horses; for when the Emperor dies they kill all his best horses, in order that he may have the use of them in the other world, as they believe. And I tell you as a certain truth that when Mangu Khân died more than 20,000 persons, who chanced to meet the body on its way, were slain in the manner I have told."
According to Vincent of Beauvais, a Tatar sometimes selected the slave whom he wished to be buried with him when he died." Seanang Setzen, in speaking of the changes introduced by Buddhism among the Mongols, says that up to the time of their conversion the custom prevailed among them of slaughtering a number of camels and horses, according to the means of the dead man. These animals were buried with the deceased, the offering being called khoilgha. In another place he tells us that when Tibet Taishi, the son of Altan Khakan died, the mother of the boy, who was not given to the new cult, demanded that a hundred children and a hundred camels should be killed to act as a convoy to her child and be buried with him. Forty children had already been killed and a popular onslaught was about to take place, when, as they were going to kill Tolai the son of Shinekei Orlik, Kia Taiji objected, and bade them send him instead. As this was not possible they ceased to kill the children.' Thomas of Spalato says that, when a Mongol was killed in war they buried him in a secret place, levelled the ground, and then trod it under horses' feet so as to conceal the place."
Mandeville has a few quaint sentences about the funerals of the great Khâns which are worth quoting. He says that when the chief's body was taken by a few people to the place of burial, a tent was then prepared, in which he was placed on a wooden throne, and before him was put a table with delicate dishes on it. Into this tent was
Yule's Marco Polo, Vol. I. p. 241-242.
Op. cit. XXIX. ch. 84; D'Ohsson, Vol. I. p. 401 noto. Op. cit. p. 235. id. p. 240-251. Wolff, op. cit. p. 334.
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