TRADITION OF CHINGHIZ-KHAN. 203 



of mind will assist the traveller in the most trifling 

 circumstances. For instance, we boiled water for 

 fixing altitudes openly, often in the presence of 

 Mongols, to whom we used to explain that this was 

 our manner of praying to God. 



A little more than seven miles to the north-east 

 of Lake Tsaideming-nor, not far from the shore of 

 the Hoang-ho, stands a tolerably high conical hill, 

 called by the Mongols Tumyr-alhu, and by the 

 Chinese Dju-djing-fu. Here, the Mongols say, the 

 wife of Chinehiz-Khan is buried. The tradition runs 

 as follows. One of the Mongol princes, by name 

 Gichin-Khan, had a beautiful wife who pleased the 

 great warrior so much that he threatened to make 

 war if her lawful husband did not resign this woman 

 to him. The terrified prince agreed to this demand, 

 and Chinghiz-Khan set off for Peking accompanied 

 by his bride. In passing through the country of 

 the present Chakhars, the beautiful captive escaped 

 from her lord and fled in the direction of the 

 Hoang-ho ; on the opposite bank of this river she 

 piled up a mound of earth with her own hands and 

 hid in it. When the pursuers sent by Chinghiz-Khan 

 approached her hiding place, the unfortunate woman, 

 despairing of safety, threw herself into the River, 

 whence the Mongols call it to the present day 

 the Khatun-gol, i.e. Lady's River.^ The body of 



^ This would seem to be a variation of the legend related by Sa- 

 nang Setzen the Mongol poetical chronicler. According to this it was 

 on the final conquest of Tangut by Chinghiz (1227), that Kurbelyin Goa 

 Khatun, the beautiful wife of the king of that country, was transferred 

 to the tent of the conqueror. She did him some bodily mischief (it is 

 not said what), and then went and drowned herself in the Kara-muren 



