Pauthier gives a little more detail from the Chinese annals, but throws no
new light on the discrepancies which we see between Polo's account and
theirs. 'Antung, who was the grandson of Mokli, the Jelair, one of
Chinghiz's Orlok or Marshals, seems here to take the place assigned to
Prester John's grandson, and Shireghi perhaps that of Yesudar. The only
prince of the latter name that I can find is a son of Hulaku's.
The description of the battle in this chapter is a mere formula again and
again repeated. The armies are always exactly or nearly equal, they are
always divided into corps of 10,000 (tomans), they always halt to
prepare for action when within ten miles of one another, and the terms
used in describing the fight are the same. We shall not inflict these
tiresome repetitions again on the reader.
CHAPTER III.
WHAT THE GREAT KAAN SAID TO THE MISCHIEF DONE BY KAIDU HIS NEPHEW.
<+> (That were Caidu not of his own Imperial blood, he would make an utter
end of him, &c.)
CHAPTER IV.
OF THE EXPLOITS OF KING CAIDU'S VALIANT DAUGHTER.
Now you must know that King Caidu had a daughter whose name was AIJARUC,
which in the Tartar is as much as to say "The Bright Moon." This damsel
was very beautiful, but also so strong and brave that in all her father's
realm there was no man who could outdo her in feats of strength. In all
trials she showed greater strength than any man of them.[NOTE 1]
Her father often desired to give her in marriage, but she would none of
it. She vowed she would never marry till she found a man who could
vanquish her in every trial; him she would wed and none else. And when her
father saw how resolute she was, he gave a formal consent in their
fashion, that she should marry whom she list and when she list. The lady
was so tall and muscular, so stout and shapely withal, that she was almost
like a giantess. She had distributed her challenges over all the kingdoms,
declaring that whosoever should come to try a fall with her, it should be
on these conditions, viz., that if she vanquished him she should
win from him 100 horses, and if he vanquished her he should win her to
wife. Hence many a noble youth had come to try his strength against her,
but she beat them all; and in this way she had won more than 10,000
horses.
Now it came to pass in the year of Christ 1280 that there presented
himself a noble young gallant, the son of a rich and puissant king, a man
of prowess and valiance and great strength of body, who had heard word of
the damsel's challenge, and came to match himself against her in the hope
of vanquishing her and winning her to wife.
