GENEVA 



<;KN<.IIIS KHAN 



133 



Tlir < it-ii. -\;i ( 'un vent ion ( 1864), signed by twelve 



delegates from various countrie-, mainly regard* the 



Mic.-uiir of tin- wounded in time of war, MM forbid* 



cruel methods of warfare (e.g. the use of explosive 



bullets ). The resulting international C(M!O was 



ultimately adopted liy all civilised powers except 



tin- I'nited Stales; and a ' Red Cross Society ' was 



' dished, which became very prominent and 



helpful during the Franco-German war ( 1N7<> 71 ), 



its flag, with the ' Geneva Groan,' being recognised 



leutial. Other international conferences for 



promoting the same objects were held at Paris 



17) and Berlin (1809). For the Geneva Bible, 



llBLB. 



4.<-ur\ a, a city of New York, at the north end 



-.neca Lake, 26 miles W. of Auburn by rail, 



with llouring-mills and manufactures of engines, 



boilers, ix-c. It is the seat of Hobart College 



( Kpiscupal), founded in 1824. Pop. (1900) 10,433. 



Geneva, LAKK OF, or LAKK LKMAN (Lm-ux 

 l.i-iitiinnt), situated between Switzerland, to which 

 the larger portion belongs, and France. It lies 

 I'.MS feet above the level of the sea, and extends 

 fur 45 miles from east to west, in the form of 

 a crescent. Its greatest breadth is 9 miles, its 

 area 223 sq. in., and its maximum depth is 1022 

 teet. This lake at some periods or the year 

 presents a curious phenomenon: the whole mass 

 of water oscillates from, side to side of the lake, 

 causing, especially near Geneva, a rise and fall 

 of from two to five feet in the course of about 

 eight or ten minutes (seiche). The phenomenon is 

 probably due to differences of barometric pressure 

 on different parts of the surface. The lake abounds 

 in lish. The shore on the side of the Pays de 

 Vaud i> a classic spot, celebrated by J. J. Rousseau 

 in his Nouoelle Heloise and by Byron in his Childe 

 Harold and in the Prisoner of Chillon, while the 

 names of Voltaire and of Madame de Stael are 

 connected with Ferney and Coppet at the Geneva 

 extremity, Gibbon's with Lausanne. The southern 

 French shore rises solemn and stern, with the 

 mountains of Savoy in the background. From 

 the Lake of Geneva, Mont Blanc is visible, and 

 although 60 miles distant, is often reflected in its 

 waters. Mirages are sometimes observed on the 

 lake. The Rhone enters the lake at the upper 

 end, turbid and yellow, and leaves it at the town 

 of Geneva as clear as glass, and of a deep blue 

 tint. The lake receives about twenty unimportant 

 streams along its northern shore. 



Genevifcve, the patron saint of Paris, was born 

 about 424, in the village of Nanterre, near Paris, 

 an<l took the veil in her fifteenth year. On the 

 death of her parents she removed to Paris. She 

 acquired an extraordinary reputation for sanctity, 

 which was increased by her confident assurance 

 that Attila and his Huns would not touch Paris, 

 and by an expedition undertaken for the relief 

 of the starving city during the Prankish invasion 

 under Childeric, in which she journeyed from town 

 to town, and returned with twelve ship-loads of 

 provisions. In 460 she built a church over the 

 tomb of St Denis (q.v.), where she was buried at 

 her death in 512. See her Life by Saint-Yves 

 (1845) and Lefeuve (new ed. 1861 ). 



Genghis Khan, originally called Temujin, 

 a celebrated Mongol conqueror, was born in 1162 

 at Deligun Buldiik on the river Onon (SE. of 

 Lake Baikal), the son of a Mongol chief whose 

 sway extended over great part of the region 

 between the Amur and the Great Wall of China. 

 Being called upon to rule his father's people when 

 only thirteen years of age, Temujin had to struggle 

 hard for several years, first against a confederacy of 



fvolted tribes, then against different confederacies 



I hostile tribes and neighbouring rivals, whom his 



uninterrupted successes and rapidly -growing power 

 had made jealous. The most critical period of 

 truer at this juncture occurred during a war 

 with Wang Khan, the (>owerful chief of the KeraiU. 

 Temujin, at first worsted, was compelled to retire 

 to a desert region with only a few warriors ; but in 

 t be following year ( 1203) he collected another army, 

 and with it inflicted upon his enemy a crushing and 

 decisive defeat. The Keraits thereujxm became 

 subject to Temujin. His ambition awakening with 

 his continued success, the Mongol nrince spent the 

 next six years in subjugating tne Nairnans, a 

 powerful Turkish confederacy who occupied the 

 region between Lake Balkhash and the river Irtish ; 

 in conquering Hia or Tangut, a Chinese empire 

 lying l>etween the Desert of Gobi and Chaidam ; 

 and in assimilating the results of the voluntary 

 submission of the Turkish Uigurs, from whom the 

 Mongols derived the beginnings of their civilisa- 

 tion, as their alphal>et and laws. It was during 

 tliis period viz. in 1206, that he adopted the title 

 of Jenghiz or Genghis Khan, equivalent to ' Very 

 Mighty Ruler.' 



Bent upon yet more ambitious schemes, he in 1211 

 refused tribute to the Kin emperor of North China, 

 and invaded and overran his country in several 

 campaigns. About this same time, too, his atten- 

 tion was directed to the west : with comparatively 

 little trouble he defeated the ruler of the Kara- 

 Chitai empire, and annexed (1217) his country, 

 which extended from Lake lialkhash to Tibet. 

 His next undertaking was the most formidable 

 of all, an attack upon the powerful empire of 

 Kharezm, whose confines ran conterminous with 

 the Jaxartes (Sihun or Sir-Daria), Ferghana, the 

 Indus, Persian Gulf, Kurdistan, Georgia, and the 

 Caspian Sea. Entering this extensive country 

 with three armies in 1218, the Mongol prince and 

 his captains successively took, often by storm, the 



1>opulous cities of Otrar, Sighnak, Aksi Khojend, 

 Bokhara, and Samarcand, hunted down from one 

 end of his territories to the other Mohammed, the 

 ruler of Kharezm, and the princes of his family, 

 captured Urgenj or Kharezm (now Khiva), devas- 

 tated with most horrible cruelties and barbarities 

 the beautiful and prosperous province of Khorasan 

 and its cities ( Nessa, Merv, Nishapur, and Herat ), 

 chased Jelal-ud-Din, son and heir of Mohammed, 

 across the Indus into India, and finally returned 

 home in 1225 by the way they had come. Two 

 of Genghis' lieutenants, Chepe and Subutai, who 

 had so relentlessly and pertinaciously hunted down 

 Mohammed, passed on from the southern shore of 

 the Caspian northwards through Axerbijan and 

 Georgia, then, turning to the west, they traversed 

 southern Russia and penetrated to the Crimea, 

 everywhere routing and slaying, and finally re- 

 turned by way of Great Bulgaria and the Volga, 

 beyond the northern end of the Caspian a marvel- 

 lous military raid. Meanwhile in the far east 

 Mukuli, one of the most capable amongst the 

 group of the great conqueror's clever generals, had 

 completed the conquest of all northern China ( 1217- 

 23 ) except Honan. 



Genghis did not long stay quietly at home. 

 After out a few months' rest he again took to the 

 saddle, to go and chastise the King of Hia or 

 Tangut, who had refused him obedience. But this 

 was nis last expedition, for, after thoroughly subdu- 

 ing the country, Genghis died of sickness, on 18th 

 August 1227, amongst the northern offshoots of the 

 Kuen-Lun called the Mountains of Liupan. The 

 rapidity and magnitude of his conquests seem to 

 have been as much due to the admirable discip- 

 line and organisation of his armies as to the 

 methods in which he conducted his campaigns. 

 His troops were all horsemen, hardy, abstemious, 

 inured to fatigue, indifferent to weather, accus- 



