CON Q^U E S T O F S I B E K I A. ^93 



ferocity of their leader. The prowefs of Yermac, his 

 Gonfummate valour and magnanimity, virtues which 

 barbarians know how to prize, rofe upon their recol- 

 leilion. They made a fadden tranlition from one ex- 

 treme to the other : they reproached their leader for 

 ordering, themfelves for being the inftruments of indig- 

 nity to fuch venerable remains. At length their heated 

 imaginations proceeded even to confecrate his memory : 

 they interred his body with all the rites of Pagan fu- 

 perflition ; and offered up facrifices to his manes. 



Many miraculous ftories were foon fpread abroad, and veneration 



J i- ' paid to Ins 



met with implicit belief. The touch of his body was ^^''"'°'i- 

 fuppoied to have been an inftantaneous cure for all dif- 

 orders ; and even his clothes and arms were faid to be 

 endowed with the fame efficacy. A flame of fire was 

 reprefented as fometimcs hovering about his tomb, and 

 fometimes as llretching in one luminous body fro'm the 

 fame fpot towards the heavens. A preliding influence 

 over the affliirs of the chacc and of war was attributed 

 to his departed ffjirit ; and numbers reforted to his tomb 

 to invoke his tutelary aid in concerns fo interefting to 

 uncivilized nations. Thefe idle fables, though they 

 €vince tlie fuperftitious credulity of the Tartars, convey 

 at the fame time the ftrongeft teilimony of their vene- 

 ration for the memory of Yermac ; and this veneration 



C c greatly 



