From The Secret History of the Mongols

This Mongol account records the early years of Mongol expansion under Chingis Khan, the founder of the empire. Born Temujin in 1155 or 1167, the young son of a minor tribal chieftain attracted the support of Mongol princes in the years between 1187 and 1206 through a series of decisive military victories over other tribes and competing Mongol claimants to the title of Great Khan.

The Mongols were illiterate before the time of Chingis Khan, who adopted the script of the Uighurs, one of the more literate peoples of the steppe. Thus the Secret History was written in Mongolian with Uighur letters. The only version that has survived is a fourteenthcentury Chinese translation (in which Chinese characters were used phonetically, to represent Uighur sounds for Mongol words). The author is unknown, but the book provides detailed accounts of the early years of Temujin and ends with the reign of his son and successor, Ogodai, in 1228 - only a year after his father's death.

Because so much about the Mongols was written by their literate enemies, The Secret History is an invaluable resource: It is clearly an "insider's" account of the early years of Mongol expansion. While it includes mythic elements - it begins with the augury of the birth of a blue wolf to introduce Chingis Khan - The Secret History is, without doubt, an authentic representation of a Mongol point of view.

In this selection, you will read four passages. The first describes a meeting in about 1187 of several tribal leaders who agree that the twenty-year-old Temujin should become Great Khan (Chingis Khan).

What do these tribal leaders expect to gain from this affiance under Temujin? What do they offer in return?

The second passage deals with an early Mongol victory in 1202 over the neighboring Tatars, a tribe that Europeans often confused with the Mongols. How merciful or harsh does Chingis Khan seem? The defeat of the Tatars leads directly to a story of two sisters.

What does this story tell you about Mongol customs?

The third passage recounts the story of an important Mongol victory over the Naiman in 1204. What does this section tell you about the sources of Mongol military strength?

The fourth passage concerns Temujin's brother, Kasar, and his mother, Hoelun. What does this scene suggest about the power of women in Mongol society?

How does this "insider's" view of the Mongols provide unique information or a perspective that would be unattainable from nonMongols?

Thinking Historically

What moral values does this selection reveal? From what you can tell from this source, do the Mongols seem to think of themselves as .moral" people? Does the author-historian seem interested in describing what happened objectively, or in presenting an unblemished, sanitized view?

In what ways does this written Mongol history make you more sympathetic to the Mongols? Notice that the "Mongols Conquer the Naiman" passage begins with a Naiman account of the Mongols. How fair does the Mongol author seem to be toward the Naiman? Would this be a good source for understanding the Naiman? Do you think the Mongol authors described the Naiman more accurately than Chinese or Europeans described the Mongols?

The Choosing of the Khan

A general council of all the chieftains was called, and the three most notable men among them, Prince Altan, Khuchar, and Sacha Beki, came forward. They addressed Temujin formally, in the following manner:

We will make you Khan; you shall ride at our head, against our foes. We will throw ourselves like lightning on your enemies;

We will bring you their finest women and girls, their rich tents like palaces.

From all the peoples and nations we will bring you the fair girls and the high-stepping horses;

When you hunt wild beasts, we will drive them towards you; we will encircle them, pressing hard at their heels.

If on the day of battle we disobey you,

Take our flocks from us, our women and children, and cast our worthless heads on the steppe.

If in times of peace we disobey you,

Part us from our men and our servants, our wives and our sons;

Abandon us and cast us out, masterless, on the forsaken earth....

Mongol Conquest of Tatars

... Temujin came up against the Tatars at Dalan Namurgas, on the Khalkha, east of Buir Nor, and defeated them in battle. They fell back; the Mongol armies pursued them, slaying and capturing them in large numbers.

The princes, Altan, Khuchar, and Daritai, were less assiduous in the pursuit. Finding a great number of animals roaming the steppes in the absence of their Tatar owners, they followed the usual custom of rounding them up, and collecting anything that took their fancy in the abandoned Tatar camps.

Temujin, having issued a clear order [against looting], could not tolerate their disobedience. He detached portions of his army, placed them under the command of Jebe and Khubilai, and sent them off after the disobedient princes, with orders to take away from them everything they had captured. The outcome was what might have been expected. Prince Altan and Khuchar, retiring in haste with as much of their booty as they could take with them, departed from their allegiance to him. They re-established themselves as independent chieftains, entering into such arrangements with Ong Khan, Jamukha, and other rulers as seemed desirable.

Daritai, however, seeing a little more clearly than the others, submitted to having his booty taken away from him.

Owing to his determined pursuit of the Tatars, Temujin found that he had a very considerable number of Tatar prisoners. They were kept under guard in the Mongol camp, and for the most part they were not greatly perturbed by their situation. Some of the chieftains might expect to be executed, but the lesser men had a reasonable hope of surviving. Some might have to serve as warriors under the Mongols, or even be enslaved, but a slave of talents could always hope to become a warrior again.

Temujin held a council to decide what to do with them. It was a great matter, and nobody was present at this council but his own family. The Khan's intention [was] to wipe out his enemies on a large scale....

BeIgutai had ... made friends among the Tatar prisoners. One of these was Yeke Charan, the principal Tatar leader.... When Yeke Charan asked him what decision the family council had come to, BeIgutai did not hesitate to tell him.

"We agreed to measure you against the linchpin,"' he said.

Yeke Charan told his fellow prisoners of the Khan's decision. Having nothing to lose, they rose up against their guards and fought their way out of the camp, taking with them what weapons they could seize. They gathered themselves together on a hilltop in a tight formation of fierce warriors. Men who are going to be killed whatever happens, and know it, fight well. The destruction of the Tatars, which was in due course accomplished, cost many Mongol lives.

Temujin was remarkably lenient towards Belgutai.

"Because BeIgutai revealed the decision of the family council," he said, "Our army suffered great losses. From now on, BeIgutai will take no part in the council. While it is being held, he will remain outside, keeping order in the camp, and he will sit in judgment during that time over the quarrelsome, the thieves, and the liars. When the council is finished and the wine is all drunk, then Belgutai can come in."

He ordered at the same time that Daritai should be banned from the family councils, for disobeying his yasakh. 2

The Khan acquired a new woman from among these Tatars. She was Yesugen, the daughter of the chieftain Yeke Charan. He found her pleasing, and treated her with favour. Yesugen was wise enough not to quarrel unduly with fate, which had ungently disposed of her father, but provided her with some measure of fortune herself.

While they were still in the Tatar country, she said to Temujin: "The Khan, showing favour towards me, takes care of me well and provides me with goods and servants. But I have an elder sister, Yesui, who would please the Khan even more than 1. She is married; Yeke Charan acquired a son-in-law, who came to live with her. But at present, in this dispersion of the people, I do not know where they have gone."

Temujin ... [said]:

"If your elder sister is even more beautiful than you are, I will send men in search of her. But if she comes, will you give up your place to her?"

"If the Khan pleases, as soon as I see my elder sister, I will give up my place to her."

Temujin gave the order that Yesui must be searched for; and the warriors found her hiding in the forest, with the son-in-law who had been given to her. The husband fled, but the lady Yesui was brought in.

Yesugen, as soon as she saw her elder sister, rose, made her sit on the seat she had lately occupied, -(,and herself took a seat lower down....

One day the Khan was sitting outside the tent, drinking with some friends. He sat between the lady Yesui and the lady Yesugen; and he heard the lady Yesui suddenly catch her breath. Temujin said nothing to her; but after reflecting for a time he called the princes Bo'orchu and Mukhali to him and said: "Have all the people here divide themselves up into their clans. If any find a man with them who is not of their clan, let them set him aside."

When the people were arranged, clan by clan, a young man, goodlooking and alert, was standing apart from all the clansmen. When they asked him who he was, he replied: "I am the son-in-law of Yeke Charan the Tatar, to whom was given his daughter Yesui. When we were surprised by the enemy, I was frightened, and escaped; then I came here, telling myself that it would be safe here. In the middle of so many people, how should I be recognized as a stranger?"

When these words were reported to the Khan, he said: "He was already an enemy; he is now a masterless man. What has he come to spy on us for? We have measured people of his kind against the linchpin of a wagon wheel. There is no need for any further investigation. Take him out of my sight."

They cut the young man's head off immediately....

Mongols Conquer the Naiman

When the news was brought to Tayang Khan that someone claiming to be Ong Khan had been slain at the Neikun watercourse, his mother, Gurbesu, said: "Ong Khan was the great Khan of former days. Bring his head here! If it is really he, we will sacrifice to him."

She sent a message to Khorisu, commanding him to cut the head off and bring it in. When it was brought to her, she recognized it as that of Ong Khan. She placed it on a white cloth, and her daughter-in-law carried out the appropriate rites.... A wine-feast was held and stringed instruments were played. Gurbesu, taking up a drinking-bowl, made an offering to the head of Ong Khan.

When the sacrifice was made to it, the head grinned.

"He laughs!" Tayang Khan cried. Overcome by religious awe, he flung the head on the floor and trampled on it until it was mangled beyond recognition.

The great general Kokse'u Sabrakh was present at these ceremonies, and observed them without enthusiasm. It was he who had been the only Naiman general to offer resistance to Temujin and Ong Khan on their expedition against Tayang Khan's brother Buyiruk.

"First of all," he remarked, "you cut off the head of a dead ruler, and then you trample it into the dust. What kind of behaviour is this? Listen to the baying of those dogs: It has an evil sound. The Khan your father, Inancha Bilgei, once said: 'My wife is young, and 1, her husband, am old. Only the power of prayer has enabled me to beget my son, this same Tayang. But will my son, born a weakling, be able to guard and hold fast my common and evil-minded people?'

"Now the baying of the dogs seems to announce that some disaster is at hand. The rule of our queen, Gurbesu, is firm; but you, my. Khan, Torlukh Tayang, are weak. It is truly said of you that you have no thought for anything but the two activities of hawking and driving game, and no capacity for anything but these."

Tayang Khan was accustomed to the disrespect of his powerful general, but he was stung into making a rash decision.

"There are a few Mongols in the east. From the earliest days this old and great Ong Khan feared them, with their quivers; now they have made war on him and driven him to death. No doubt they would like to be rulers themselves. There are indeed in Heaven two shining lights, the sun and the moon, and both can exist there; but how can there be two rulers here on earth? Let us go and gather those Mongols in."

His mother Gurbesu said: "Why should we start making trouble with them? The Mongols have a bad smell; they wear black clothes. They are far away, out there; let them stay there. Though it is true," she added, "that we could have the daughters of their chieftains brought here; when we had washed their hands and feet, they could milk our cows and sheep for us."

Tayang Khan said: "What is there so terrible about them? Let us go to these Mongols and take away their quivers."

"What big words you are speaking," Kokse'u Sabrakh. "Is Tayang Khan the right man for it? Let us keep the peace."

Despite these warnings, Tayang Khan decided to attack the Mongols. It was a justifiable decision; his armies were stronger, but time was on Temujin's side. Tayang sought allies, sending a messenger to Alakhu Shidigichuri of the Onggut, in the south, the guardians of the ramparts between Qashin and the Khingan. "I am told that there are a few Mongols in the east," he said. "Be my right hand! I will ride against them from here, and we will take their quivers away from them. "

[Alakhu Shidigichuri's] reply was brief: "I cannot be your right hand." He in his turn sent a message to Temujin. "Tayang Khan of the Naiman wants to come and take away your quivers. He sent to me and asked me to be his right hand. I refused. I make you aware of this, so that when he comes your quivers will not be taken away."

When he received Alakhu's message Temujin, having wintered near Guralgu, was holding one of his ... roundups of game on the camelsteppes of Tulkinche'ut, in the east. The beasts had been encircled by the clansmen and warriors; the chieftains were gathered together, about to begin the great hunt.

"What shall we do now?" some of them said to each other. "Our horses are lean. at this season."

... The snow had only lately left the steppe; the horses had found nothing to graze on during these recent months. Their ribs stuck out and they lacked strength.

The Khan's youngest brother, Temuga, spoke up....

"How can that serve as an excuse," he said, "that the horses are lean? My horses are quite fat enough. How can we stay sitting here, when we receive a message like that?"

Prince Belgutai spoke....

"If a man allows his quivers to be taken away during his lifetime, what kind of an existence does he have? For a man who is born a man, it is a good enough end to be slain by another man, and lie on the steppe with his quiver and bow beside him. The Naiman make fine speeches, with their many men and their great kingdom. But suppose, having heard their fine speeches, we ride against them, would it be so difficult to take their quivers away from them? We must mount and ride; it is the only thing to do."

Temujin was wholly disposed to agree with these sentiments. He broke off the hunt, set the army in motion, and camped near Ornu'u on the Khalkha. Here he paused for a time while he carried out a swift reorganization of the army. A count was held of the people; they were divided up into thousands, hundreds, and tens, and commanders of these units were appointed. Also at this time he chose his personal bodyguards, the seventy day-guards and eighty night-guards....

Having reorganized the army, he marched away from the mountainside of Ornu'u on the Khalkha, and took the way of war against the Naiman.

The spring of the Year of the Rat [1204] was by now well advanced. During this westward march came the Day of the Red Disc, the sixteenth day of the first moon of summer. On this day, the moon being at the full, the Khan caused the great yak's-tail banner to be consecrated, letting it be sprinkled with fermented mare's milk, with the

proper observances.

They continued the march up the Kerulen, with Jebe and Khubilai in the van. When they came on to the Saari steppes, they met with the first scouts of the Naiman. There were a few skirmishes between the Naiman and Mongol scouts; in one of these, a Mongol scout was captured, a man riding a grey horse with a worn saddle. The Naiman studied this horse with critical eyes, and thought little of it. "The Mongols' horses are inordinately lean," they said to each other.

The Mongol army rode out on to the Saari steppes, and began to deploy themselves for the forthcoming battle.... Dodai Cherbi, one of the newly appointed captains, put a proposal before the Khan.

"We are short in numbers compared to the enemy; besides this, we are exhausted after the long march, our horses in particular. It would be a good idea to settle in this camp, so that our horses can graze on the steppe, until they have had as much to cat as they need. Meanwhile, we can deceive the enemy by making puppets and lighting innumerable fires. For every man, we will make at least one puppet, and we will burn fires in five places. It is said that the Naiman people are very numerous, but it is rumoured also that their king is a weakling, who has never left his tents. If we keep them in a state of uncertainty about our numbers, with our puppets and our fires, our geldings can stuff themselves till they are fat."

The suggestion pleased Temujin, who had the order passed on to the soldiers to light fires immediately. Puppets were constructed and placed all over the steppe, some sitting or lying by the fires, some of them even mounted on horses.

At night, the watchers of the Naiman saw, from the flanks of the mountain, fires twinkling all over the steppe. They said to each other: "Did they not say that the Mongols were very few? Yet they have more fires than there are stars in Heaven."

Having previously sent to Tayang Khan news of the lean grey horse with the shabby saddle, they now sent him the message: "The warriors of the Mongols are camped out all over the Saari steppes. They seem to grow more numerous every day; their fires outnumber the stars."

When this news was brought to him from the scouts, Tayang Khan was at the watercourse of Khachir. He sent a message to his son Guchuluk.

"I am told that the geldings of the Mongols are lean, but the Mongols are, it seems, numerous. Once we start fighting them, it will be difficult to draw back. They are such hard warriors that when several men at once come up against one of them, he does not move an eyelid; even if he is wounded, so that the black blood flows out, he does not flinch. I do not know whether it is a good thing to come up against such men.

"I suggest that we should assemble our people and lead them back to the west, across the Altai; and all the time, during this retreat, we will fight off the Mongols as dogs do, by running in on them from either side as they advance. Our geldings are too fat; in this march we shall make them lean and fit. But the Mongols' lean geldings will be brought to such a state of exhaustion they will vomit in the Mongols' faces. "

On receiving this message, Guchuluk Khan, who was more warlike than his father, said: "That woman Tayang has lost all his courage, to speak such words. Where does this great multitude of Mongols come from? Most of the Mongols are with Jamukha, who is here with us. Tayang speaks like this because fear has overcome him. He has never been farther from his tent than his pregnant wife goes to urinate. He has never dared to go so far as the inner pastures where the knee-high calves are kept." So he expressed himself on the subject of his father, in the most injurious and wounding terms.

When he heard these words, Tayang Khan said: "I hope the pride of this powerful Guchuluk will not weaken on the day when the clash of arms is heard and the slaughter begins. Because once we are committed to battle against the foe, it will be hard to disengage again."

Khorisu Beki, a general who commanded under Tayang Khan, said: "Your father, Inancha Bilgei, never showed the back of a man or the haunch of a horse to opponents who were just as worthy as these. How can you lose your courage so early in the day? We would have done better to summon your mother Gurbesu to command over us. It is a pity that Kokse'u Sabrakh has grown too old to lead us. Our army's discipline has become lax. For the Mongols, their hour has come. It is finished! Tayang, you have failed us." He belted on his quiver and galloped off.

Tayang Khan grew angry. "All men must die," he said. "Their bodies must suffer. It is the same for all men. Let us fight, then."

So, having created doubt and dismay, and lost the support of some of his best leaders, he decided to give battle. He broke away from the watercourse of Khachir, marched down the Tamir, crossed the Orkhon and skirted the eastern flanks of the mountain Nakhu. 'When they came to Chakirma'ut, Temujin's scouts caught sight of them and brought back the message: "The Naiman are coming!"

The Battle of Chakirma'ut

When the news was brought to Temujin he said: "Sometimes too many men are just as big a handicap as too few."

Then he issued his general battle orders. "We will march in the order 'thick grass,' take up positions in the 'lake' battle order, and fight in the manner called 'gimlet.' "4 He gave Kasar the command of the main army, and appointed Prince Otchigin to the command of the reserve horses, a special formation of great importance in Mongol warfare.

The Naiman, having advanced as far as Chakirma'ut, drew themselves up in a defensive position on the foothills of Nakhu, with the mountain behind them.... The Mongols forced their scouts back on to the forward lines, and then their forward lines back on to the main army, and drove tightly knit formations of horsemen again and again into the Naiman ranks. The Naiman, pressed back on themselves, could do nothing but retreat gradually up the mountain. Many of their men ... hardly had the chance to fight at all, but were cut down in an immobile mass of men as soon as the Mongols reached them.

Tayang Khan, with his advisers, also retreated up the mountain as the day advanced. From the successive spurs to which they climbed, each one higher than the last, they could see the whole of this dreadful disaster as it took place below them.

Jamukha was with Tayang Khan....

"Who are those people over there," Tayang Khan asked him, "who throw my warriors back as if they were sheep frightened by a wolf, who come huddling back to the sheepfold?"

Jamukha said: "My anda 5 Temujin has four hounds whom he brought up on human flesh, and kept in chains. They have brows of copper, snouts like chisels, tongues like bradawls, hearts of iron, and tails that cut like swords. They can live on dew, and ride like the wind. On the day of battle they eat the flesh of men. You see how, being set loose, they come forward slavering for joy. Those two are Jebe and Khubilai; those two are Jelmei and Subetai. That is who those four 'hounds are."

He pointed out to him also the Uru'ut and the Mangqut, who, as Tayang Khan remarked, seemed to bound like foals set loose in the morning, when, after their dams have suckled them, they frisk around her on the steppe. "They hunt down men who carry lances and swords," he said. "Having struck them down, they slay them, and rob them of all they possess. How joyful and boisterous they look, as they ride forward!"

"Who is it coming up there in the rear," Tayang Khan asked him, -who swoops down on our troops like a ravening falcon?"

"That is my anda Temujin. His entire body is made of sounding copper; there is no gap through which even a bodkin could penetrate. There he is, you see him? He advances like an eagle about to seize his prey. You said formerly that if you once set eyes on the Mongols you would not leave so much of them as the skin of a lamb's foot. What do

you think of them now?"

By this time the chieftains were standing on a high spur. Below

them, the great army of the Naiman, Jamukha's men with them, were

retreating in confusion, fighting desperately as the Mongols hemmed

them in.

"Who is that other chieftain," Tayang asked Jamukha, "who

draws ever nearer us, in a dense crowd of men?"

"Mother Hoelun brought up one of her own sons on human flesh.

He is nine feet tall; he eats a three-year-old cow every day. If he swal-

lows an armed man whole, it makes no difference to his appetite. When

he is roused to anger, and lets fly with one of his angqua (forked] ar-

rows, it will go through ten or twenty men. His normal range is a thou-

sand yards; when he draws his bow to its fullest extent, he shoots over

eighteen hundred yards. He is mortal, but he is not like other mortals;

he is more than a match for the serpents of Guralgu. He is called

Kasar."

They were climbing high up the mountain now, to regroup below

its summit. Tayang Khan saw a new figure among the Mongols.

"Who is that coming up from the rear?" he asked Jamukha.

"That is the youngest son of Mother Hoelun. He is called Otchigin

[Odeigin] the Phlegmatic. He is one of those people who go to bed

early and get up late. But when he is behind the army, with the reserves,

he does not linger; he never comes too late to the battle lines."

"We will climb to the peak of the mountain," Tayang Khan said.

Jamukha, seeing that the battle was lost, slipped away to the rear

and descended the mountain, with a small body of men. One of these

he sent to Temujin with a message. "Say this to my anda. Tayang

Khan, terrified by what I have told him, has completely lost his senses.

He has retreated up the mountain as far as he can. He could be killed

by one harsh word. Let my anda take note of this: They have climbed

to the top of the mountain, and are in no state to defend themselves any

more. I myself have left the Naiman."

Since the evening was drawing on, Temujin commanded his troops

in the forefront of the attack to draw back. Bodies of men were sent

forward on the wings, east and west, to encircle the summit of Mount

Nakhu. There they stood to arms during the night. During the night,

the Naiman army tried to break out of the encircling ring. Bodies of

horsemen plunged down the mountainside in desperate charges; many

fell and were trampled to death, the others were slain. In the first light

they were seen lying about the mountain in droves, like fallen trees.

Few were left defending the peak; they put up little resistance to the

force sent up against them.

It is said that Tayang Khan, suddenly gaining courage when it was

too late to be of any use to him, tried to fight his way out through the encircling army. When captured he was gravely wounded, and he died not long afterwards. His son Guchuluk Khan, though, was still at liberty; he tried to dig himself in on the Tamir, but was driven out of his entrenchments and took to flight with his attendants....

After the battle of Chakirma'ut the Mongol clansmen who had been with Jamukha came over to Temujin. There were men of the Khadagin, the Salji'ut, the Durben, the Taijut, and the Onggirat

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amongst them.

The mother of Tayang Khan, Gurbesu, was brought to him.

"Did you not say that the Mongols smelt badly?" he asked her. "If that is so, why have you come here?" He took her into his tents to serve him....

Temujin, His Brother Kasar, and Their Mother Hoelun

... The seven sons of the thoughtful Father Munglik, the seven young princes of the Qongqotadai ... having had some argument with Kasar ... surrounded him and not only treated him with disrespect, but handled him roughly.

Kasar, aggrieved, went to complain to Temujin, expecting to be granted permission to take his revenge on the Qongqotadai; but Temujin had grown suspicious of his powerful brother, and heard him without sympathy. Kasar went away to sulk in his own tents.

Temujin himself stood in awe of Teb Tenggeri. Having fulfilled so many earthly ambitions, he was greatly concerned at this time, and during his later years, with the meaning of life, and the relation between men and the higher powers of Heaven.

Teb Tenggeri [the shaman] sought an audience with the Khan, and said to him: "The ruler of Heaven has sent me a prophecy, saying: 'At one time, Temujin shall have the realm in his hand; at another time, Kasar.' Who can say what will happen if you do not forestall Kasar in his ambition?"

Temujin went with a bodyguard that night to ride to Kasar's tents. Kuchu and Kokochu, the first two boys, now men, that he had given to Hoelun, went to her and told her that the Khan had ridden to arrest Kasar.

Though it was nighttime, Hoelun had a white camel harnessed to a black covered wagon, and drove after the Khan to Kasar's tents.

She arrived there at sunrise. Temujin had had Kasar bound, and had taken away his cap and girdle, as a sign of his disgrace; he was about to try him. When Hoelun came storming into the camp, he trembled before her. She herself, in her rage, got down from the wagon, loosed Kasar's bonds, and gave him back his cap and belt.

She sat down with her legs folded under her, pulled out her ample breasts from her dress, spread them out on her knees and said: "Do you see these? They are the breasts from which you sucked. You, who, as the proverb says, gnawed your own afterbirth, tore your own umbilical cord!

"What has Kasar done? When I nursed you, Temujin, you drained one of my breasts. Khaji'un and Otchigin together could only drain one of them. Kasar, though, drained them both, and gave me peace. He emptied my breasts, and I was free!

"My cunning Temujin received the gift of the spirit. Kasar received strength, and skill in shooting with the bow. He brought under your dominion those who sought to escape from it; he shot down those who sought to flee. Now, when your enemies have been brought to their end, you wish to look on Kasar no more."

Temujin said: "When my mother is angered against me, I am terrified. I am ashamed of myself. Let us go back to the camp."

They returned to the tents, and peace was made. But the Khan was still full of mistrust. Without letting Hoelun know of it, he took away many of Kasar's men, leaving him with a diminished retinue of only fourteen hundred followers. When Hoelun came to know of this, she took it so much to heart that her strength failed, and age and death came rapidly down on her....