152 DESTRUCTION OF THE YEGURS. 



from Mongolia to Tibet, until the Oliuth prince 

 Giishi-Khan, who ruled in North-western Mongolia, 

 marched an army to Koko-nor to subdue them. The 

 Yegurs were partly exterminated, but some of them 

 escaped to North-western Kan-su, where they mixed 

 with the other inhabitants. 



After the subjection of the Yegurs, some of the 

 Oliuth (Eleuth) troops returned to the north, but 

 others settled in Koko-nor ; their descendants are 

 the Mongol inhabitants of the present day. Some 

 hundreds of them emigrated to Tibet, where their 

 posterity has multiplied and now numbers 800 yurtas 

 divided into eight koshungs (banners). They live 

 six days' journey to the south-west of the village of 

 Napchu,^ where they cultivate the soil and bear the 

 name of Damsuk-Mongols, after the little river on 

 whose banks they are settled. 



The tradition further says that when the Yegurs 

 were destroyed by the Mongols, one old woman, 

 with three daughters all in the family way, escaped 

 to the right bank of the Hoang-ho. Here the 

 daughters gave birth to three sons, from whom are 

 descended the Kara-Tangutans, or, as they call them- 

 selves, the Banik-Koksum. During the course of 

 many years they increased in numbers and returned 

 to Koko-nor, where they were at first obliged to de- 

 fend themselves against the Mongols, but as they 



' The village of Napchu is near the southern foot of the Tang-la, 

 twelve days' march from Lhassa, on the high road taken by pilgrims 

 from the north. [Hue mentions this village and its Mongol inhabit- 

 ants, II. 238.— M.] 



