Chinghiz then inquired for a bishop among the Uighur
Christians in his camp, and they indicated Mar Denha. Chinghiz
thenceforward was milder towards the Christians, and showed them many
distinctions (p. 285). Vincent of Beauvais also speaks of Rabbanta, a
Nestorian monk, who lived in the confidence of Chinghiz's wife, daughter
of "the Christian King David or Prester John," and who used by divination
to make many revelations to the Tartars. We have already said that there
seems no ground for assigning a daughter of Aung Khan as wife to Chinghiz.
But there was a niece of the former, named Abika, among the wives of
Chinghiz. And Rashiduddin does relate a dream of the Kaan's in relation
to her. But it was to the effect that he was divinely commanded to give
her away; and this he did next morning!
(Rawlins. Herod. IV. 67; Amm. Marcell. XXXI. 2; Delvio, Disq. Magic.
558; Mendoza, Hak. Soc. I. 47; Doolittle, 435-436; Hist. of
Genghizcan, pp. 52-53; Preston's al-Hariri, p. 183; P. della V. II.
865-866; Vigne, I. 46; D'Ohsson, I. 418-419).
[1] [On the Chinese divining-twig, see Dennys, Folk-lore of China,
57. - H. C.]
[2] [With reference to this passage from Rubruck, Mr. Rockhill says
(195, note): "The mode of divining here referred to is apparently the
same as that described by Polo. It must not however be confounded with
rabdomancy, in which bundles of wands or arrows were used." Ammianus
Marcellinus (XXXI. 2. 350) says this mode of divination was practised
by the Alans. "They have a singular way of divining: they take
straight willow wands and make bundles of them, and on examining them
at a certain time, with certain secret incantations, they know what is
going to happen." - H. C.]
CHAPTER L.
THE BATTLE BETWEEN CHINGHIS KAAN AND PRESTER JOHN.
[Illustration: Death of Chinghiz Khan. (From a miniature in the Livre des
Merveilles.)]
And after both sides had rested well those two days, they armed for the
fight and engaged in desperate combat; and it was the greatest battle that
ever was seen. The numbers that were slain on both sides were very great,
but in the end Chinghis Kaan obtained the victory. And in the battle
Prester John was slain. And from that time forward, day by day, his
kingdom passed into the hands of Chinghis Kaan till the whole was
conquered.
I may tell you that Chinghis Kaan reigned six years after this battle,
engaged continually in conquest, and taking many a province and city and
stronghold. But at the end of those six years he went against a certain
castle that was called CAAJU, and there he was shot with an arrow in the
knee, so that he died of his wound. A great pity it was, for he was a
valiant man and a wise.[NOTE 1]
I will now tell you who reigned after Chinghis, and then about the manners
and customs of the Tartars.
NOTE 1. - Chinghiz in fact survived Aung Khan some 24 years, dying during
his fifth expedition against Tangut, 18th August 1227, aged 65 according
to the Chinese accounts, 72 according to the Persian. Sanang Setzen says
that Kurbeljin Goa Khatun, the beautiful Queen of Tangut, who had passed
into the tents of the conqueror, did him some bodily mischief (it is not
said what), and then went and drowned herself in the Karamuren (or
Hwang-ho), which thenceforth was called by the Mongols the Khatun-gol, or
Lady's River, a name which it in fact still bears. Carpini relates that
Chinghiz was killed by lightning. The Persian and Chinese historians,
however, agree in speaking of his death as natural. Gaubil calls the place
of his death Lou-pan, which he says was in lat. 38 deg.. Rashiduddin calls it
Leung-Shan, which appears to be the mountain range still so called in the
heart of Shensi.
The name of the place before which Polo represents him as mortally wounded
is very variously given. According to Gaubil, Chinghiz was in reality
dangerously wounded by an arrow-shot at the siege of Taitongfu in 1212.
And it is possible, as Oppert suggests, that Polo's account of his death
before Caagiu (as I prefer the reading), arose out of a confusion
between this circumstance and those of the death of Mangku Kaan, which
is said to have occurred at the assault of Hochau in Sze-ch'uan, a name
which Polo would write Caagiu, or nearly so. Abulfaragius specifically
says that Mangku Kaan died by an arrow; though it is true that other
authors say he died of disease, and Haiton that he was drowned; all which
shows how excusable were Polo's errors as to events occurring 50 to 100
years before his time. (See Oppert's Presbyter Johannes, p. 76; De
Mailla, IX. 275, and note; Gaubil, 18, 50, 52, 121; Erdmann, 443;
Ss. Setzen, 103.)
It is only by referring back to ch. xlvii., where we are told that
Chinghiz "began to think of conquering a great part of the world," that we
see Polo to have been really aware of the vast extent and aim of the
conquests of Chinghiz; the aim being literally the conquest of the world
as he conceived it; the extent of the empire which he initiated actually
covering (probably) one half of the whole number of the human race. (See
remarks in Koeppen, Die Relig. des Buddha, II. 86.)
CHAPTER LI.
OF THOSE WHO DID REIGN AFTER CHINGHIS KAAN, AND OF THE CUSTOMS OF THE
TARTARS.
Now the next that reigned after Chinghis Kaan, their first Lord,[NOTE 1]
was CUY KAAN, and the third Prince was BATUY KAAN, and the fourth was
ALACOU KAAN, the fifth MONGOU KAAN, the sixth CUBLAY KAAN, who is the
sovereign now reigning, and is more potent than any of the five who went
before him; in fact, if you were to take all those five together, they
would not be so powerful as he is.[NOTE 2] Nay, I will say yet more; for
if you were to put together all the Christians in the world, with their
Emperors and their Kings, the whole of these Christians, - aye, and throw
in the Saracens to boot, - would not have such power, or be able to do so
much as this Cublay, who is the Lord of all the Tartars in the world,
those of the Levant and of the Ponent included; for these are all his
liegemen and subjects.
