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 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 Mongou Kaan died, more than 20,000 persons, who
chanced to meet the body on its way, were slain in the manner I have
told.[NOTE 4]
NOTE 1. - Before parting with Chinghiz let me point out what has not to my
knowledge been suggested before, that the name of "Cambuscan bold" in
Chaucer's tale is only a corruption of the name of Chinghiz. The name of
the conqueror appears in Fr. Ricold as Camiuscan, from which the
transition to Cambuscan presents no difficulty. Camius was, I suppose, a
clerical corruption out of Canjus or Cianjus. In the chronicle of St.
Antonino, however, we have him called "Chinghiscan rectius Tamgius
Cam" (XIX. c. 8). If this is not merely the usual blunder of t for
c, it presents a curious analogy to the form Tankiz Khan always used
by Ibn Batuta.
